The cyberattack against Change has disrupted the healthcare industry for nearly three weeks, creating a range of financial and operational challenges for providers.
Providers have said receiving payment from patients and insurers, verifying coverage, submitting prior authorization requests or exchanging clinical records has been affected by the outage. Workarounds to affected systems are also time-consuming, adding extra work for providers and administrative staff, provider groups said.
Late last week, UnitedHealth reported a timeline for restoring operations, expecting to bring electronic payments back online beginning March 15 and starting to test its claims network and software on March 18.
Providers with weak liquidity before the cyberattack are more likely to run out of cash, and those that rely on Change alone for filing claims are also at higher risk.
Providers have said receiving payment from patients and insurers, verifying coverage, submitting prior authorization requests or exchanging clinical records has been affected by the outage. Workarounds to affected systems are also time-consuming, adding extra work for providers and administrative staff, provider groups said.
Late last week, UnitedHealth reported a timeline for restoring operations, expecting to bring electronic payments back online beginning March 15 and starting to test its claims network and software on March 18.
Providers with weak liquidity before the cyberattack are more likely to run out of cash, and those that rely on Change alone for filing claims are also at higher risk.
Small, financially struggling providers at risk from Change cyberattack: Moody’s
Larger providers, however, aren’t immune from cash flow challenges, especially if UnitedHealth Group is unable to restore systems by mid-March.
www.healthcaredive.com