Federal government authorizes payment plan to help providers handle health care system hack

Mar. 6—As U.S. hospitals and pharmacies work to recover from a cyberattack that has left them unable to clear certain insurance claims, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer is lauding the quick work of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which on Tuesday announced a program to offer an advance on missing payments to impacted facilities.

On Feb. 21, Change Healthcare, owned and operated by UnitedHealth Group, was targeted with a ransomware attack that locked critical computer systems and made them inaccessible. The hackers demanded a $22 million payment to unlock the systems.

Change Healthcare is a major link between health care providers and insurance companies, including to UnitedHealth Group's insurance offerings. The company operated as a clearinghouse of transactions, matching requests for payment from hospitals, doctors offices and pharmacies with information and payment details from the insurance companies.

Almost every health care provider in the U.S. has experienced some interruption in claims processing as a result. On Wednesday, a Samaritan Medical Center spokesperson confirmed that the hospital had been impacted, but said the effects were minimal as the hospital does not maintain a concrete relationship with Change Healthcare.

The spokesperson said more information about the impact of the cyberattack on Samaritan, including the lost income, would be made available within days.

The $22 million payment was made Tuesday and the group responsible, identified as ALPHV, also called BlackCat, claims to have disbanded, although the group's main operatives have dissolved and reconvened before.

Schumer, D-N.Y., in a press conference Tuesday afternoon, said that he was happy to hear that the Medicare and Medicaid Services division of HHS had authorized a loan program that provides interest-free payments to impacted health care providers, to be repaid when the Change system is repaired and payments are flowing again.

"Just an hour ago, HHS and (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) heeded my call and they said they would open up a program," Schumer said at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. "This is good, and it's going to provide some real relief to our hospitals."

He said he had spent Tuesday speaking with upstate hospital leaders, who warned that ongoing interruptions to the normal payment process for their services could lead to a reduction in services, furloughs and layoffs. He warned that the U.S. health care system is still financially precarious, especially in upstate New York, after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and said he hoped HHS officials would fast-track the relief program to ensure no provider is overwhelmed.

At the same time, Schumer said he wants the FBI to dedicate real attention to the issue, and work to catch the hackers responsible for such widespread financial chaos.

"The FBI needs to go after these dastardly hackers," he said. "And the FBI has a great ability to find out whoever did this."

Schumer said he wasn't ready to make any calls on if the U.S. health care financial system needs to be updated. Cyber experts and health care officials have raised concerns that the failure of one company's computer systems could have such widespread impacts, and officials at Change Healthcare have reportedly privately acknowledged that their company is so important that without it the current system would not work.

"I think we need a little more information as to what happened, to make a determination on how the system ought to change," Schumer said.