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Nine days after a cyberattack that disrupted pharmacy services across the U.S., UnitedHealth Group has established an alternate system and created a financial assistance program for healthcare providers, the company announced Friday. Change Healthcare, part of UnitedHealth Group's Optum subsidiary, opened a temporary version of its Rx ePrescribing service at 2 p.m. EST Friday for drugstores, hospital and nursing home pharmacies, and other affected providers. (Berryman, 3/1)

“This is absolutely devastating financially for us,” said Jennifer Fenton, executive director of Equine Healing Collaborative, a nonprofit psychotherapy center with four locations in California. The center is owed more than $50,000 in unpaid claims and it furloughed five clinicians Thursday, Fenton said. Without relief, the remaining nine face the same fate [this] week, she said. (Rundle, Stupp and Nash, 3/1)

As the ripple effects from a hack on a UnitedHealth Group Inc. unit extend for more than a week, some health-care providers face an increasingly difficult dilemma: whether to deny medication to patients or risk not being paid for costly treatment. For days, providers have been unable to verify if a patient’s health insurance will cover the cost of their prescription. ... However, operators of smaller pharmacies say they can only cover the cost of prescriptions — while they wait to be reimbursed — for so long. (Pashankar, 3/1)

Cyberattacks of all sorts have plagued large corporations, small businesses and individuals for decades now, but in the past several years, health care has become a top target, according to federal and local cybersecurity experts. These organizations hold a massive amount of patient data — including medical records, financial information, Social Security numbers, names and addresses. They’re also among the few businesses that stay open 24/7, meaning they might be more likely to prioritize avoiding disruptions and, therefore, more likely to pay a hacker’s ransom. (Takahama, 3/1)