April 16 (Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group ( UNH ) took a

hit of $872 million to first-quarter profit from disruptions

caused by the February cyberattack at its Change Healthcare

unit.

The disruptions are expected to impact profit by as much as

$1.35 per share this year, the company said in a statement.

This is the healthcare conglomerate's first public comment

on the financial cost of the data breach, which disrupted

services at pharmacies, hospitals, doctors offices and other

providers as well as at community health centers in the United

States.

Health insurers had to relax or remove prior authorization

processes for some claims following the hack, stoking concerns

of an increase in costs. At the same time, there were delays in

claim submissions as medical care providers struggled with

paperwork.

UnitedHealth ( UNH ) has so far provided advance funding worth more

than $6 billion to certain healthcare providers, and while

several major of its major services have resumed operations,

there are many more that continue to reel from the impact of the

outage.

The healthcare conglomerate recorded a net loss of $1.53

per share due to a $7 billion charge related to the sale of its

Brazil unit Amil to businessman Jose Seripieri Filho, the

founder and former chief executive of health insurance firm

Qualicorp.

The company said it was expecting net profit of $17.60 to

$18.20 per share to reflect the Brazil sale and the estimated

direct response costs of the cyberattack.

Shares of the company rose 4.35% to $465.55 in premarket

trading.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing

by Anil D'Silva)