US to accelerate some payments to hospitals after UnitedHealth hack
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[March 06, 2024]
By Michael Erman
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. government said on Tuesday it will
accelerate Medicare and Medicaid payments to some hospitals hurt by a
hack at insurer UnitedHealth's technology unit Change Healthcare.
The cyberattack on Change, disclosed on Feb.21, was perpetrated by
hackers who identified themselves as the "Blackcat" ransomware group and
has had a knock-on effect on players across the U.S. healthcare system.
Disruptions triggered by the attack have impacted electronic pharmacy
refills and insurance transactions.
U.S. doctors' group the American Medical Association (AMA) and the
American Hospital Association (AHA) said the government support did not
go far enough.
"The magnitude of this moment deserves the same level of urgency and
leadership our government has deployed to any national event of this
scale before it. The measures announced today do not do that and are not
an adequate whole of government response," Rick Pollack, President of
the AHA said in an emailed statement.
The AMA said the moves do not protect individual physician practices and
urged the Biden administration "to go above and beyond what has been put
in place and include financial assistance such as advanced payments for
physicians."
The groups called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
to make more widespread accelerated payments available - like those
issued during the COVID-19 pandemic - amid cash flow concerns caused by
an inability to submit claims and receive payments.
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![](../images/030624PIX/health89.jpg)
UnitedHealth Group's headquarters building is seen in Minnetonka,
Minnesota, U.S. in this handout picture taken in 2019. UnitedHealth
Group/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Mar/06/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_021424.png) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS), a division of the HHS, said hospitals may submit
accelerated payment requests to the contractors who oversee their
payments for individual consideration.
CMS also encouraged Medicare Advantage plans to offer advance
funding to providers most affected by the hack at Change and asked
contractors to relax various requirements for compliance with
Medicare rules.
AHA's Pollack wrote in a letter sent on Monday that the temporary
assistance program put in place by UnitedHealth last week was "not
even a band-aid" on the payment problems caused by the hack, and
called the terms of the program "shockingly onerous."
UnitedHealth did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for
comment on the letter from AHA.
Change said last week it had enabled a new version of its
ePrescribing service for all its customers, more than a week after
it reported the hack.
(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York and Pratik Jain; Editing by
Devika Syamnath, Alison Williams and Nia Williams)
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