(Bloomberg) -- UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty told lawmakers his company is still trying to determine why its computer systems were left vulnerable to hackers who perpetrated a devastating cyberattack. Lawmakers zeroed in on lax defenses during more than two hours of questioning by the Senate Finance Committee, in the first of two congressional hearings about the breach on Wednesday. The intruders got in through a server that didn’t have multifactor authentication — a basic cybersecurity measure used on consumer bank accounts — and got access to a hoard of health ..read more

Tri-state area hospitals performed solidly in March and are showing sustained signs of improvement over the same period of 2023, according to the latest data from research firm Kaufman Hall. However, they still lag behind the country on the whole. The data, released Thursday, shows that local facilities’ median operating margins declined by 5% year-over-year. However, that decrease was offset by improvements across their patient volume and revenue metrics. Discharges increased by 5% over 2023, while patient days and emergency department visits both grew by nearly 4%. The number of observation ..read more

New York state will get a cut of a $270 million multistate settlement with opioid maker Amneal Pharmaceuticals over allegations that the company fueled the overdose epidemic, the attorney general’s office said Friday. Attorney General Letitia James and attorneys general from five other states negotiated a preliminary settlement with Amneal Pharmaceuticals for fueling an overdose crisis that killed 6,000 New Yorkers in 2021, the latest year that data is available. The attorneys general alleged in a lawsuit that Amneal failed to monitor and report suspicious orders placed by its customers, as it ..read more

CORRECTION: This article, which was published on May 3, has been updated to clarify the average starting salary of a first-year resident at H+H. NEW CANCER PROGRAMS: Memorial Sloan Kettering is launching three projects to improve cancer outcomes in Brooklyn and Queens, the health system announced this morning. They seek to provide resources to increase access to lung cancer screenings in underserved communities, launch patient navigation services through a co-learning program and develop artificial intelligence tools for early detection technology. The five-year initiative the projects are par ..read more

How can manufacturers remain profitable in the face of a skilled labor shortage? A combination of in-person work, low unemployment and high industrial demand has turned a pre-pandemic labor shortage into a current-day labor crisis for industries that rely on specialized skills. The manufacturing industry has been among the hardest hit as the skills gap widens. Grassi’s 2024 survey of food and beverage manufacturers in the NYC metropolitan area found that an astounding 90 percent have concerns about staffing. Among them, companies that grew profits in 2023 were likelier to have implemented stra ..read more

Knickerbocker Village, a Depression-era affordable housing development in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side, has come under new ownership, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Wednesday.   L+M Fund Management, an affiliate of Larchmont-based L+M Development Partners, officially scooped up the 1,600-unit complex from Manhattan-based Stellar Management for $84.5 million April 25 after a 2022 lawsuit reportedly derailed the long-planned sale, records show. It's unclear for how long Stellar had owned the complex, and it was previously owned by Apollo Global Mana ..read more

More than 1,650 law school graduates are on their way to practicing law in New York after passing the New York State Bar Examination in February. With 3,962 test-takers, the overall pass rate clocked in at 42%, up 2% from last year. That share is significantly higher for first-time test-takers who attended American Bar Association-approved law schools, with that subset of examinees passing at a rate of 71%.  Whether a student studied law at an ABA-approved law school in New York or elsewhere in the U.S. did not translate to significant discrepancies in success on the state-specific exam ..read more

A billionaire developer who for years has been ensnared in legal trouble for allegedly defaulting on loans now must give up his stake in a Madison Avenue office building that will be auctioned off in two weeks, according to a court notice last month. Ben Ashkenazy, who heads Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., recently had his ground lease at 635 Madison Ave. foreclosed on as a result of a lawsuit brought in 2021 by plaintiffs Wilmington Trust and Miami-based property management company LNR Partners after Ashkenazy failed to make payments. The court issued a judgment of $99.7 million, and the propert ..read more

Crain's hosted its second annual Women of Influence luncheon on May 1 to recognize some of the city’s leading ladies. The event, held at the Marriott Marquis, brought together a group of more than 250 to celebrate this year’s 11 individual honorees, including Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City; Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters; Michelle Morse, the city’s chief medical officer; and FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. Crain’s also recognized women and organizations who were nominated as mentors, rising stars and women-forward w ..read more

Law firm Sullivan & Worcester has relocated its Midtown office and leased 20% less space. The firm with 52 New York-based attorneys moved to 1251 Sixth Ave. from 1633 Broadway, a short walk away on West 50th Street.   The new space at 42,000 square feet is smaller but has a view of Rockefeller Center and a “fun and collaborative” environment, managing partner David Danovitch said. The rent is also lower than at 1633 Broadway, though Danovitch wouldn’t say by how much. More importantly, the office is a touch closer to Grand Central Terminal. “We wanted to be a bit more centrally locate ..read more