Ryuk ransomware to cost Universal Health Services $67 million

A ransomware attack on Universal Health Services (UHS) on September 2020 had an estimated impact of $67 million in downtime and related expenses, it has revealed. The Fortune 500 healthcare organization has tens of thousands of employees in the US and UK and annual revenues exceeding $10 billion.

The information technology applications were offline, patient care was delivered safely and effectively at our facilities across the country utilizing established back-up processes, including offline documentation methods,” it explained in a new financial filing.

The substantial majority of the unfavorable impact was attributable to our acute care services and consisted primarily of lost operating income resulting from the related decrease in patient activity as well as increased revenue reserves recorded in connection with the associated billing delays," UHS said.

Also included were certain labor expenses, professional fees and other operating expenses incurred as a direct result of this incident and the related disruption to our operations."

"We also incurred significant incremental labor expense, both internal and external, to restore information technology operations as expeditiously as possible.