united health group on Monday said he was being paid more. 2 billion dollars To assist healthcare providers affected by the cyber attack on our subsidiary Change Healthcare.
“We continue to make significant progress toward restoring services affected by this cyberattack,” UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Whitty said in a statement. press release. “We know this is a huge challenge for healthcare workers and we encourage anyone in need to contact us.”
UnitedHealth disclosed nearly a month ago that cyber attackers had compromised part of Change Healthcare’s information technology network. This fallout wreaked havoc on the entire U.S. medical system. Change Healthcare provides e-prescription software and tools for payment management, so disruptions can leave many providers temporarily unable to refill medications or receive reimbursement for services from insurance companies. Did.
UnitedHealth provides the following care: 152 million peopleannounced Monday that it has begun releasing its medical billing software and that it will be available to thousands of customers in the coming days. The company calls this “an important step toward resuming service.”
UnitedHealth announced Friday that it has restored Change Healthcare’s electronic payment platform after restarting 99% of its pharmacy network services earlier this month. It also introduced a temporary financial assistance program to support health care providers who are experiencing financial difficulties due to the attacks.
UnitedHealth said it does not need to repay the advance until claims flow returns to normal. Federal agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Introduced additional options This is to allow states and other stakeholders to make interim payments to providers, according to the release.
According to a study released Friday by the American Hospital Association. 94% of hospitals We are experiencing economic disruption due to Change Healthcare attacks. More than 60% of the 1,000 hospitals surveyed estimated their revenue to be about $1 million per day. Responses were collected from March 9th to March 12th.
“We urge Congress and the administration to take additional steps now to help providers deal with the significant impact of this historic attack,” AHA CEO Rick Pollack said in a release. I will continue to urge them to take action.”
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it had opened an investigation into the company due to a “cyberattack of unprecedented scale.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights is investigating. OCR enforces the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s security, privacy, and breach notification rules, and most health insurance plans, providers, and clearinghouses are required to protect health information. This must be followed.
UnitedHealth did not say what kind of data was compromised in the attack or whether it worked with cyber attackers to restore its systems. The company said it is working closely with law enforcement and third parties, including Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud’s Mandiant, to assess the breach.