The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare payments, will soon end financial assistance to physicians and other providers of medical care who had reimbursements disrupted by the cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit.
A cyberattack in February on Change Healthcare triggered chaos for several weeks for physicians and medical care providers across the country, paralyzing Change Healthcare’s massive billing and payment system. The attack triggered a shutdown of parts of Change Healthcare’s electronic system, leaving doctors and other providers of medical care without the ability to get insurance approval of patient services.
“Payments under the Accelerated and Advance Payment (AAP) Program for the Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption will conclude on July 12, 2024,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said earlier this week. “Launched in early March, the CHOPD payments were designed to ease cash flow disruptions experienced by some Medicare providers and suppliers, such as hospitals, physicians, and pharmacists, due to the unprecedented cyberattack that took health care electronic data interchange Change Healthcare offline in February.”
The payment assistance program was designed to mitigate cash flow disruptions experienced by physicians, hospitals and other providers and suppliers. As one example, the American Medical Association said fallout from the cyberattack left thousands of doctor practices financially hurting, with 80% of physicians reporting “lost revenue from unpaid claims,” the AMA said in a survey released in April.
The AMA said the cyberattack threatened the viability of physician practices across the country with more than half of survey respondents having “had to use personal funds to cover practice expenses.”
CMS said the Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption accelerated payments have been issued to more than 4,200 “Part A providers, such as hospitals, totaling more than $2.55 billion.” Meanwhile, CMS issued “4,722 CHOPD advance payments, totaling more than $717.18 million, to Part B suppliers, including doctors, non-physician practitioners, and durable medical equipment suppliers.”
“In the face of one of the most widespread cyberattacks on the U.S. health care industry, CMS promptly took action to get providers and suppliers access to the funds they needed to continue providing patients with vital care,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said. “Our efforts helped minimize the disruptive fallout from this incident, and we will remain vigilant to be ready to address future events.”
CMS has recovered more than 96% of the Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption payments and is advising any providers and suppliers having difficulty billion billing or receiving payment should contact Change Healthcare or their Medicare Administrative Contractor. Further information can be found here.
In April, UnitedHealth Group said the total impact of the cyberattack on its Change Healthcare unit will cost the company between $1.35 billion and $1.6 billion in 2024. Meanwhile, UnitedHealth has since increased provider assistance to more than $6.5 billion to help physicians and other medical care providers through no-cost loans that are based on providers’ claims volume, the company has said.
UnitedHealth Group will release its second quarter 2024 financial results on July 16 when analysts expect the company will provide further information on the ongoing impact of the cyberattack.
