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A page from the United Healthcare website appears on a computer screen on February 29, 2024 in New York.
CNN
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The U.S. health insurance billing system is stabilizing after last month's unprecedented cyberattack on major companies, but small clinics may still need help to ensure they can stay in business. A senior Biden administration official said Monday after meeting with health care executives. .
Ninety-five percent of health insurance claims for Change Healthcare, the insurance claims company disrupted by the Feb. 21 hack, are now being processed, a senior administration official told reporters in an update on the federal response to the hack. Told.
“[O]Our real focus is to make sure we don't end up in a situation where there are problems with access to health care,” officials said at a background news conference, and reporters asked not to name the officials. means that it is not possible. “The way to do that is to have liquidity in the system.”
“We are still hearing from small safety net providers in rural areas who need cash assistance,” another senior official said.
The cyberattack forced Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthGroup, to take offline its computer systems that process electronic payments and claims, and the American Hospital Association (AHA) called it the most significant cyberattack in U.S. healthcare history. I called it. Change Healthcare says he handles one in every three patient records in the United States.
Change Healthcare restored its electronic payment platform on March 15 and is “moving forward with payer adoption,” UnitedHealth Group said in a statement Monday. The statement said 99% of the company's pharmacy network services are back online and the company is working on the remaining services.
Parent company Change Healthcare announced it would release its “medical billing software” to thousands of customers over the next few days, touting it as “an important step in the return to service.”
However, the full economic impact of the hack is still unclear. U.S. officials told reporters they did not have that data.
The AHA, which represents thousands of hospitals across the country, said the hack halted the flow of “billions of dollars” to health care providers.
The implications are severe for people trying to get prescriptions filled and for doctors trying to run their practices. CNN reports on a Colorado woman who paid $1,600 out of pocket for Pax Lobid treatment because her insurance couldn't be filed, at least temporarily, and worries she might be forced to close her hospital. We interviewed the chief financial officer of a cancer treatment clinic in Oregon. door.
White House and Health and Human Services (HHS) officials asked UnitedHealth Group executives and other health care leaders at a meeting last week to discuss what forms of funding are available to health care providers during the disruption. I asked for clarification on whether this is possible.
Unprecedented pressure on hacked U.S. health care companies won't end with the restoration of billing services. HHS has launched an investigation into whether Change Healthcare complied with federal laws to protect patient data.
