Cyberattack at Change Healthcare leaves mental health providers in the dark
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – When a system outage hit Change Healthcare in February, it caused pharmacy delays for thousands of people throughout Oregon, California, and the Midwest. Some have even called it one the worst cyberattacks in years.
Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, says they were the target of a cybercrime at the hands of hackers known as Alphv/blackcat on Feb. 21. As the outage continues, small mental health providers say they have not received payments for services or concrete answers from insurance companies.
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But nearly three weeks later, Dr. Prentice Geary DHA, MBA with Cascade Counseling and Consulting said clinics like his have been left in the dark.
“I have to lead my team and continue to operate this clinic, but the fear is there and those are definitely the things that will keep me up at night until we have answers,” Dr. Geary said.
Dr. Geary said it’s especially hard when about 50% of their clients are on the Oregon Health Plan, which he calls their largest payer.
“Having them tell us that they have no solution, and they’ve got no actual official communication out to us on when we can expect payment to come, just that claims are on hold and please don’t submit any claims,” he said. “That has a downstream effect.”
As a contracted clinic Dr. Geary says moving forward he wants to see memos sent directly to the clinics so that he and other care providers don’t have to look for the answers themselves.
“I’m hopeful that someone will be able to provide us a concrete answer on when we can expect payments to resume and claims to continue processing just to allow myself and my colleagues to be able to breathe a bit more easy,” he said.
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In response, a CareOregon spokesperson told KOIN 6 that there is “no timeline for Change Healthcare to restore access to its systems,” but their team has set up an alternative clearinghouse which began to receive and process live claims as of last week.
“We care deeply about the success of our provider community and are doing everything we can to respond to this unprecedented event,” the statement from CareOregon said. “We are actively communicating with our provider partners to keep them informed of our response. We encourage any providers encountering financial hardships or issues to contact CareOregon so we can provide support.”
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But with no end in sight, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also issued the following statement, which can be read in full on their website.
“HHS is in regular contact with UHG leadership, state partners, and with numerous external stakeholders to better understand the nature of the impacts and to ensure the effectiveness of UHG’s response. HHS has made clear its expectation that UHG does everything in its power to ensure continuity of operations for all health care providers impacted and HHS appreciates UHG’s continuous efforts to do so.
“…HHS refers directly to UHG for updates on their incident response progress and recovery planning. However, numerous hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and other stakeholders have highlighted potential cash flow concerns to hhs stemming from an inability to submit claims and receive payments.”
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