Utah Medicaid to provide up to 30-day supply of medication at no cost amid cyber outage

Ryan Bittan
·2 min read

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Utah Medicaid has advised pharmacies to provide medication at no cost amid a cyber outage within Change Healthcare, according to a press release.

The state program is taking what the Utah Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is calling an “unprecedented step” in reaching out to 17,000 Medicaid members who are on high-risk or life-sustaining medication amid an outage affecting pharmacy prescription information.

On Wednesday, Feb. 21, Change Healthcare — the Utah Medicaid pharmacy vendor for members whose prescriptions are paid directly by Medicaid — reported experiencing a cyber security matter that caused them to disconnect their systems. This was done in an effort to “reduce further impact,” according to the release.

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In response, around 200 staff from the Utah Dept. of Health and Human Services Medicaid Team, as well as the Utah Dept. of Workforce Services, will be contacting Medicaid members who are due for a refill of high-risk medication in the next seven days, by Mar. 2, as the Change Healthcare outage is expected to last into next week.

Utah Medicaid has advised pharmacies to provide up to a 30-day supply of medications at no cost to Medicaid members, according to the release.

For Medicaid members whose prescriptions will be due for refill between Mar. 3 – Mar. 9, DHHS said they will “continue to review the situation and member needs” over the next week. Additionally, the department said they are “prepared to make another round of contacts” if the outage is not resolved in time.

Medicaid members who need medication “to stay alive or reduce risks for their behavioral health” will be contacted. Some examples include medication for:

  • Diabetes

  • Cancer

  • Blood pressure

  • Epilepsy

  • Asthma and breathing issues

  • Pain

  • Hemophilia

  • Mental health

  • Depression, anxiety, or substance use disorder

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“We didn’t cause the problem, but we are owning a solution,” said Tracy Gruber, executive director of DHHS. “We owe it to our members to do everything we can so they can have the medication they need.”

If members have questions, they can call Utah Medicaid at 866-608-9422. DHHS has reportedly extended their customer service hours through the weekend from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

Change Healthcare, and its parent company, Optum, provide technology and data to insurance companies and healthcare services nationally. Change Healthcare anticipates that these disruptions will last through the day, if not longer, and is providing updates on its website here.

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