Small Clinics Struggle to Recover After Cyberattack on US Health Insurance Billing System

Small clinics are still struggling as the US health insurance billing system stabilizes following the nationally disruptive cyberattack against Change Healthcare in February, warned senior Biden Administration officials on April 1, 2024. 

According to CNN coverage of the meeting between officials and health care executives, the administration’s focus is “…making sure we don’t get to the point where there are issues with access to care…and the way to do that is make sure you keep liquidity in the system.”

Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthGroup, restored its electronic payments platform on March 15 and officials shared that 95% of their health insurance claims are being processed now. Change is also promising to soon share “medical claims preparation software” with customers to further their restorative efforts. 

However, officials said the full cost of the cyberattack is not known and smaller health clinics may still need help such as cash assistance to stay in business. 

“In meetings over the last week, senior White House and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials have urged UnitedHealthGroup executives and those from other health care firms to be clear about what forms of financing are available to health providers during the disruption,” reported CNN. 

HHS has also opened an investigation to investigate if Change Healthcare complied with federal law to protect patient data.

Reference
Lyngaas, S. Hacked health care giant makes progress in recovery, but concerns for small clinics remain. CNN Business. March 18, 2024. Accessed April 3, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/tech/health-insurance-billing-system-cyberattack/index.html