As the Change Healthcare outage drags on, fears grow that patient data could spill online

**Executive summary:** A ransomware attack against Change Healthcare (owned by UnitedHealth) attributed to ALPHV/BlackCat disrupted U.S. healthcare billing and prescription systems, with affiliates claiming a $22M ransom payment and continued possession of allegedly stolen patient records; the gang later removed its leak site in what researchers suspect is an exit scam, leaving uncertainty about the scale and exposure of sensitive medical data.