RedSail white paper warns about pharmacy switch risks and resilience

SPARTANBURG, SC — A new white paper from RedSail Technologies highlights one of pharmacy’s most critical vulnerabilities —the pharmacy switch —and explains why it requires immediate attention from industry operators.

Inside the Pharmacy Switch Crisis: What We Learned and Where Pharmacy Goes Next explains the real-world impact of the 2024 Change Healthcare cyberattack, which disrupted claims processing for most U.S. pharmacies and affected nearly one-third of Americans. But beyond recounting the crisis, the report offers practical insights into what pharmacies got wrong, where systems failed, and how those risks can be mitigated going forward.

The paper clearly describes how the switch serves as the core of claims processing and explains why outages can quickly result in lost revenue, workflow disruptions, and patient access issues. It also explores market risks, including vendor concentration and reliance on a single claims pathway.

Importantly, the report highlights actionable strategies pharmacies can implement immediately, from building redundancy with secondary switches to prioritizing modern, secure infrastructure and real-time system visibility.

For pharmacy leaders, the value is clear: gaining a deeper understanding of an often overlooked system, combined with a practical framework for safeguarding business continuity in an increasingly fragile ecosystem.