Change Healthcare has reached a crucial point following the Feb. 21 cyberattack, owner UnitedHealth Group announced Monday.
The billing vendor began releasing medical claims preparation software on March 18. UHG called this an “important step in the resumption of services,” noting that software use will be made available to “thousands of customers over the next several days.”
Change Healthcare hopes to have third-party attestations available prior to services going back online. Remaining restoration, meanwhile, will continue through forthcoming phases “until all customers have been connected.”
“We continue to make significant progress in restoring the services impacted by this cyberattack,” Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, said in a statement. “We know this has been an enormous challenge for healthcare providers and we encourage any in need to contact us.”
UHG already restored Change Healthcare’s electronic payments platform on March 15 and is now proceeding with payer implementations. To aid in this process, UHG has advanced more than $2 billion in payments through multiple initiatives. Providers still seeking assistance can register for the program here.
“The company recognizes the high level of fragmentation of the U.S. health system can result in uneven experiences; therefore, it continues to enhance and expand funding support to make it easier for care providers to access funding help at no cost,” UHG reported. “To further assist care providers, the company also suspended prior authorizations for most outpatient services and utilization review of inpatient admissions for Medicare Advantage plans.”
Meanwhile, CMS reported March 15 that it has issued important flexibilities to help state agencies provide relief to Medicaid providers impacted by the attack. In particular, the agency wants to ensure that states can make interim payments to any providers facing cash flow challenges.
The American Hospital Association also issued new survey data March 15, detailing how the attack is affecting its members. Over 80% said the cyberattack has hampered cash flow, and of those almost 60% estimated that the revenue impacted is $1 million or more each day. About 74% of hospitals also reported impacts to direct patient care because of the outage.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.