Healthcare stocks take a hit after trepidation in the market continues

The United States stock market opened today to a cautious post-Easter floor as healthcare systems see the brunt of trepidation.

The U.S. stock market has seen a boom in the first quarter of 2024, which had investors looking forward to the rest of the year, but the sluggish start to April has those purse strings guarded, especially for the healthcare sector.

Healthcare stocks slide

After the shock announcement that private Medicare payments would not be boosted to expected rates, the healthcare scene in the stock market has shown a sharp decline.

Walk-In pharmacy CVS had its shares slide by 6%, as did United Healthcare. Cetene fell 5% and Elevance Health saw the smallest slip by 2%. One of the main losers from the announcement was Humana, which is deeply dependent on Medicare Advantage from Medicare. The healthcare provider was hit with a 10% plunge.

The announcement made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) shows that those Wall Street Traders had gotten it wrong for the first time in a decade. These fact sheets show the breakdown of the CMS Rate Announcement

This has put more pressure on healthcare insurers and medical providers who are still scrabbling to recover from the recent cyber-attack on the United Health Group (UHG).

UHG released the following on the cyber attack, saying “We are committed to providing relief for people affected by this malicious attack on the U.S. health system,” said Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group. “All of us at UnitedHealth Group feel a deep sense of responsibility for recovery and are working tirelessly to ensure that providers can care for their patients and run their practices, and that patients can get their medications. We’re determined to make this right as fast as possible.”

The UHG also released confirmation to TechCrunch via Vice President at UnitedHealth, Tyler Mason saying “Change Healthcare can confirm we are experiencing a cyber security issue perpetrated by a cybercrime threat actor who has represented itself to us as ALPHV/Blackcat.”

Change Healthcare is a subsidiary of UHG and handles the prescription medications of over 67, 000 pharmacies throughout the United States. Making this ransomware attack one of the biggest to hit the United States overall.

The United States Justice Rewards Programme released a plea for information about the cyber attackers on X:

Help Us Trap This Cat

ALPHV/BlackCat-linked actors have targeted more than 400 victims worldwide.

If you have info on this ransomware-as-a-service group, or associated individuals or entities, contact us.

You could be eligible for a reward or relocation. pic.twitter.com/GzvjzFEFux

— Rewards for Justice (@RFJ_USA) March 27, 2024

Those in the health insurance industry will be hoping these attackers can be brought to justice and for normal service to resume to stem the bleed of stock value on the world’s biggest trading platform.

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