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UnitedHealth Group has Paid More than $2 Billion to Providers Following Cyberattack
UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it’s paid out more than $2 billion to help health-care providers who have been affected by the cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare.
Change Healthcare offers e-prescription software and tools for payment management, so the interruptions left many providers temporarily unable to fill medications or get reimbursed for their services by insurers.
UnitedHealth, which provides care for 152 million people, said on Monday that it began releasing medical claims preparation software, which will be available to thousands of customers in the next several days. The company called it “an important step in the resumption of services.”
On Friday, UnitedHealth said it restored Change Healthcare’s electronic payments platform, after rebooting 99% of its pharmacy network services earlier this month. It also introduced a temporary funding assistance program to help health-care providers experiencing cash flow trouble because of the attack.
UnitedHealth said the advances will not need to be repaid until claims flows return to normal. Federal agencies like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have introduced additional options to ensure that states and other stakeholders can make interim payments to providers, according to a release.
A survey published by the American Hospital Association on Friday found that 94% of hospitals have experienced financial disruptions from the Change Healthcare attack. More than 60% of the 1,000 hospitals surveyed estimated the revenue hit to be around $1 million per day. Responses were collected between March 9 and March 12.
UnitedHealth hasn’t disclosed what kind of data was compromised in the attack, or whether it cooperated with the cyber threat actor in order to restore systems. The company said it’s been working closely with law enforcement and third parties like Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud’s Mandiant to assess the breach. |
