Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Providers Struggle To Get Paid As Ransomware Attack Stretches On
Healthcare providers across the United States are struggling to get paid following the week-long ransomware outage at a key tech unit of UnitedHealth Group, with some smaller providers saying they are already running low on cash. Large hospital chains are also locked out of processing payments with some absorbing the upfront costs of being unable to collect, according to the American Hospital Association, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, healthcare systems, networks and other providers. (Satter, Bing and Wingrove, 2/29)
A cyberattack on the health technology provider Change Healthcare is wreaking havoc nationwide, as some hospitals and pharmacies cannot get paid, and many patients are unable to get prescriptions. Change Healthcare is a subsidiary of the UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's largest healthcare companies. In a federal filing this week, UnitedHealth said that Change Healthcare first discovered the hack on Feb. 21, disconnecting impacted systems "immediately." (Sganga and Triay, 2/29)
The outage caused by the Change Healthcare cyberattack could last weeks, a top UnitedHealth executive suggested in a Tuesday conference call with hospital cybersecurity officers, according to a recording obtained by STAT. (Trang, 2/29)
