UnitedHealth Group Provides Updates on Response to Change Healthcare Cyberattack

UnitedHealth Group late yesterday announced a series of updates on its response to the unprecedented cyberattack against its subsidiary Change Healthcare. In the announcement, UHG outlines anticipated timelines for restoring Change Healthcare’s affected systems for pharmacy services, payments and medical claims. In addition, UHG provided new details about funding support for providers affected by the outage and said that for Medicare Advantage plans it is temporarily suspending prior authorizations for most outpatient services and utilization review for MA inpatient admissions. Please see the UHG webpage for more details.

AHA TAKE

In a statement today, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said, “We appreciate the information that UnitedHealth Group has laid out regarding an aspirational timeline of potential technical relief for this historic cyberattack on the U.S. health care system. However, nothing in the announcement materially changes the chronic cash flow implications and uncertainty that our nation’s hospitals and physicians are experiencing as a result.   

“Even after Change Healthcare’s technology is restored, it will be weeks — if not months — before our hospitals and other health care providers will be made whole. The AHA will continue to work with the Department of Health and Human Services, Congress, UnitedHealth Group and other payers to ensure that all options for assistance are explored so that the health care field can continue to care for patients and communities.”

BACKGROUND

The widespread repercussions from the Change Healthcare cyberattack, which began Feb. 21, continue to make it harder for many hospitals and doctors to provide patient care, submit insurance claims and receive payment for the essential health care services they provide.

Throughout the last few weeks, the AHA has been urging UHG to take action to minimize disruption to patient care and hospital operations resulting from this attack. In addition, AHA has urged Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services to support hospitals and providers impacted by the attack. 

FURTHER QUESTIONS

If you have further questions on these announcements, please contact Molly Smith, AHA group vice president of policy, at mollysmith@aha.org, or Chad Golder, AHA general counsel, at cgolder@aha.org.