UnitedHealth hack takes toll on healthcare providers to the nation's poor
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The ransomware attack on UnitedHealth that has disrupted payments to U.S. doctors and healthcare facilities nationwide for a month, has taken an especially harsh toll on the community health centers that serve more than 30 million poor and uninsured patients.
Many large healthcare centers have been able to resume receiving payments and making claims after the hack by using alternative technology, UnitedHealth says.
But technology roadblocks have prevented many community health centers from reconnecting, according to interviews with national and state-based organizations representing them, two national groups representing Medicaid directors and plans and five of the affected centers
One Texas-based association said if the situation continues through the end of this month, some members will not be able to make payroll.
UnitedHealth's Change Healthcare technology is used to verify insurance coverage, file claims and get paid. With thousands of customers needing to move to a new connection, UnitedHealth has provided loans and urged practices to use workarounds while it tests and resumes a new system in phases starting this week.
For Tulip Tree Family Health Care, which operates two locations in southern Indiana and serves 4,000 rural patients from Indiana and Illinois, the impact has been "drastic," said Executive Director Kristine Georges.
Tulip Tree has been unable to shift to a different clearinghouse or access other workarounds recommended by UnitedHealth, Georges said. Since Feb. 20, claims have been piling up, amounting to a $300,000 backlog.
Tulip Tree is one of 1,400 community health centers that receive grants from federal Health Resources and Services Administration to cover uninsured patients. Most rely on payments from the U.S. Medicaid program for low income individuals and families.
Members of its 32-person staff are submitting claims on paper or individual insurers' websites, a time-consuming process that has racked up $12,000 in overtime costs in the past two weeks.
Even the extra postage is a drain, she said. "There's no fat to cut."
UnitedHealth has acknowledged that some providers may need more restoration work before they can submit claims and that not all have been able to implement workaround solutions
The company is working with several thousand providers to help with cash flow issues, including large and small regional health systems and small, rural independent physician practices, a spokesman said.
He did not say when claims processing to community health centers would be restored.