Episource Notifies Millions of Stolen Health Data Breach

Episource, a prominent medical billing firm, has informed millions across the United States that their personal and health data was breached in a cyber incident earlier this year.

The breach affects more than 5.4 million individuals, as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, making it one of the most significant healthcare data breaches of the year.

As a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, Episource aids healthcare providers like doctors and hospitals by managing billing adjustments. Thus, the company handles extensive volumes of personal and medical data to streamline health insurance claims.

In notifications filed in California and Vermont last Friday, Episource indicated that a cybercriminal was able to “view and copy” patient and member information from its systems during a week-long breach that ended on February 6.

The stolen data comprises personal information such as names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers, as well as sensitive health details, including medical record numbers and data related to physicians, diagnoses, medications, test results, imaging, care, and various treatments. Furthermore, the data encompasses health insurance information, such as plans, policies, and member identification numbers.

While Episource did not provide further details about the breach, Sharp Healthcare, a partner affected by the event, informed its customers that the incident was associated with ransomware.

This breach adds to a pattern of cybersecurity incidents that have affected UnitedHealth in recent years.

In February 2024, Change Healthcare, a significant entity in the U.S. healthcare landscape that processes billions of transactions annually, suffered a ransomware attack that compromised the personal and health data of over 190 million Americans, establishing it as the largest healthcare data breach in U.S. history.

A few months later, the Optum division of UnitedHealth inadvertently exposed an internal chatbot utilized by employees for claims inquiries to the internet.