Company: UHS
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-027785
Chunk: 67

Company: UNIVERSAL HEALTH SERVICES INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 67
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5, the U.S. government imposed or threatened to impose new tariffs, including on imported products from Mexico, Canada and China. The impact of these tariffs is subject to a number of factors, including the effective date and duration of such tariffs, changes in the amount, scope and nature of the tariffs in the future, any retaliatory responses to such actions that the target countries may take and any mitigating actions that may become available. If significant tariffs or other restrictions are imposed on our imported pharmaceutical ingredients, medical devices, medical equipment and their ingredients and components, there could be significant strain on our supply chains, causing major disruptions in procurement processes and contract negotiations with suppliers due to increased costs, pricing volatility, longer procurement lead times and supply shortages stemming from increased production costs and import restrictions.  As a result, we have to attempt to shift increased costs onto insurers and patients (in the form of higher service charges), reduce procurement volumes and delay equipment upgrades to mitigate financial strain. While we continue to evaluate the potential impact of the new tariffs on our business, given the uncertainty regarding the scope and duration of any new tariffs, as well as the potential for additional tariffs or trade barriers by the U.S., Mexico, Canada, China or other countries, we can provide no assurance that any strategies we implement to mitigate the impact of such tariffs or other trade actions will be successful.

Risks Related to Information Technology

A cyber security incident could cause a violation of HIPAA, breach of patient or other persons privacy, or other negative impacts.

We rely extensively on our information technology (“IT”) systems to manage clinical and financial data, communicate with our patients, payers, vendors and other third parties and summarize and analyze operating results. In addition, we have made significant investments in technology to adopt and utilize electronic health records and to become meaningful users of health information technology pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Our IT systems, and the networks and information systems of third parties that we rely on, are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, facility damage, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, security breaches including credit card or personally identifiable information breaches, vandalism, theft, natural disasters, catastrophic events, human error and potential cyber threats, including malicious codes, worms, phishing attacks, denial of service attacks, ransomware and other sophisticated cyber-attacks, and our disaster recovery planning cannot account for all eventualities. Our systems, in turn, interface with and rely on third-party systems that we do not control, including medical devices and other