LeadingAge to Host Change Healthcare Cyberattack Town Hall for Members – March 21st, 1:00 PM CT.
LeadingAge will host a members-only town hall on Thursday, March 21 at 1:00 PM CT to provide the latest information and insight on the February 21 cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Solutions division. Members will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear from the LeadingAge policy team experts. Keep up on the latest developments on the cyberattack at their Change Healthcare serial post.
CMS Announces Flexibilities for Medicaid Response to Change Healthcare Outage
On March 15, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced important flexibilities to help state Medicaid agencies provide needed relief to Medicaid providers and protect access to health care coverage. Specifically, CMS is focused on making interim payments more easily accessible to providers affected by the Change Healthcare cybersecurity incident. CMS is encouraging states to submit Medicaid state plan amendments (SPAs) for authority to make certain interim payments for services providers have rendered but for which the provider cannot submit claims. CMS released guidance on March 15 on related flexibilities, including the option for states to start making interim payments retroactively to the date when claims payment processing was disrupted due to the cybersecurity incident (February 27, 2024).
New UHG Temporary Funding Assistance Eligibility and Tools
Providers who checked to see if they were eligible for the UnitedHealth Group Temporary Funding Assistance Program may want to take a second look. Since March 7, UHG has expanded the list of providers eligible for funds. Eligible providers under this program include:
- UnitedHealthcare medical, dental and vision providers.
- Providers who receive payments from payers that are processed by Change Healthcare.
- Providers who have exhausted all available connection options or may be in the process of implementing technical workaround solutions and who work with a payer who has opted not to advance funds to providers during the period when Change Healthcare systems remain down.
Note that UHG does not specify that this is only available to Medicare payers who use Change Healthcare. Therefore, providers struggling to receive Medicaid managed care payments may now also be eligible. There are also new tools to look up your eligibility and determine the amounts. All details on the TFAP can be found here.
For those interested in the timeline for claims and payment processing to resume, UHG outlines the steps to resume these services and are still indicating that these systems will be back online sometime the week of March 18. The details of bringing these systems back online can be found here by expanding the sections on “Claims Network” and “Payment.”
HHS Investigates UnitedHealth Group over Change Healthcare Hack
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation on March 13 into UnitedHealth Group over the issues caused by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare. OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer announced the investigation in a public letter, writing that HHS was taking the step due to “the unprecedented magnitude of this cyberattack, and in the best interest of patients and health care providers.” OCR enforces the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, which sets forth the requirements that HIPAA-covered entities and their business associates must follow to protect the privacy and security of protected health information and the required notifications to HHS and affected individuals following a breach.
