Smaller rivals to UnitedHealth's tech unit Change Healthcare say they are signing longer-term contracts with hospitals and other customers who had temporarily switched from the company after February's cyberattack shut down the unit's services. The new contracts landed by Waystar and privately held Availity and Inovalon show a shift to healthcare practices signing deals with multiple service providers instead of relying on a single vendor, in what may be the first sign of needed change in an industry. Health tech experts said the move to more than one vendor is long overdue, but was hastened by the hack. Change makes up only 1% of revenue at healthcare giant UnitedHealth but processes about 50% of medical claims in the U.S. for around 900,000 physicians, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories. About 1 in 3 U.S. patient records are processed in some way at Change.
