{"id":1651,"date":"2024-03-08T22:58:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T23:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2024-03-12T21:03:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T21:03:32","slug":"with-cyberattack-fix-weeks-away-health-providers-slam-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=1651","title":{"rendered":"With Cyberattack Fix Weeks Away, Health Providers Slam United"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hospitals, doctors and clinics expressed frustration that they will have to wait even longer for reimbursements after hackers paralyzed the largest U.S. billing clearinghouse.<\/p>\n

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More than two weeks after a cyberattack, financially strapped doctors, hospitals and medical providers on Friday sharply criticized UnitedHealth Group\u2019s latest estimate<\/a> that it would take weeks longer to fully restore a digital network that funnels hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance payments every day.<\/p>\n

UnitedHealth said that it would be at least two weeks more to test and establish a steady flow of payments for bills that have mounted since hackers effectively shut down Change Healthcare, the nation\u2019s largest billing and payment clearinghouse, on Feb. 21.<\/p>\n

But desperate providers that have been borrowing money to cover expenses and employee payrolls expressed skepticism at that estimate, worrying that it could be months before the logjam of claims and payments cleared up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have nearly a three-week gap in cash flow,\u201d said Brad Larsen, a psychologist and founder of Portland Mental Health & Wellness in Oregon, adding that the group had received only about 10 percent of its expected insurance payments. He said the practice had to borrow $300,000 to meet its first of two payrolls for the month. \u201cIt\u2019s not good.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In an apparent move to mollify some providers who had expressed disappointment at United\u2019s earlier remedy of a loan program that offered stopgap payments of as little as $20 a week, the parent company agreed to issue advances. United announced that its insurer, the largest in the United States, would begin advancing payments to hospitals and doctors based on amounts billed before the cyberattack.<\/p>\n

And given that Change manages one of every three U.S. patient records \u2014 amounting to 15 billion transactions a year, the cyberattack affected not only United\u2019s clients but also those of many other insurers. That led UnitedHealth\u2019s executive to recommend that they also offer advances. \u201cTo me, that is the quickest way to get money in the hands of providers,\u201d Dirk McMahon, United\u2019s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview. .<\/p>\n

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Hospitals, doctors and clinics expressed frustration that they will have to wait even longer for reimbursements after hackers paralyzed the largest U.S. billing clearinghouse.More than two weeks after a cyberattack, financially strapped doctors, hospitals and medical providers on Friday sharply criticized UnitedHealth Group\u2019s latest estimate that it would take weeks longer to fully restore a digital network that funnels hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance payments every day.UnitedHealth said that it would be at least two weeks more to test and establish a steady flow of payments for bills that have mounted since hackers effectively shut down Change Healthcare, the nation\u2019s largest billing and payment clearinghouse, on Feb. 21.But desperate providers that have been borrowing money to cover expenses and employee payrolls expressed skepticism at that estimate, worrying that it could be months before the logjam of claims and payments cleared up.\u201cWe have nearly a three-week gap in cash flow,\u201d said Brad Larsen, a psychologist and founder of Portland Mental Health & Wellness in Oregon, adding that the group had received only about 10 percent of its expected insurance payments. He said the practice had to borrow $300,000 to meet its first of two payrolls for the month. \u201cIt\u2019s not good.\u201dIn an apparent move to mollify some providers who had expressed disappointment at United\u2019s earlier remedy of a loan program that offered stopgap payments of as little as $20 a week, the parent company agreed to issue advances. United announced that its insurer, the largest in the United States, would begin advancing payments to hospitals and doctors based on amounts billed before the cyberattack.And given that Change manages one of every three U.S. patient records \u2014 amounting to 15 billion transactions a year, the cyberattack affected not only United\u2019s clients but also those of many other insurers. That led UnitedHealth\u2019s executive to recommend that they also offer advances. \u201cTo me, that is the quickest way to get money in the hands of providers,\u201d Dirk McMahon, United\u2019s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview. .We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1653,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1654,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions\/1654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}