In this photo illustration, the UnitedHealth Group Corporation logo is displayed on a tablet.
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Changing Healthcare Friday explain It has completed the establishment of a new electronic prescribing service, which could help provide some relief to pharmacies and doctors who have been grappling with the impact of ongoing cyberattacks.
UnitedHealth GroupChange Healthcare’s parent company is also launching a temporary funding assistance program to help providers manage their “short-term” cash flow needs, the company said.
According to UnitedHealth, a cyber threat actor compromised part of the department’s information technology network on February 21. a filing and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UnitedHealth quarantined and disconnected the affected systems “immediately upon detection” of the threat, which has caused ripple effects throughout the health care system, the document said.
Change Healthcare provides payment and revenue cycle management tools that assist with transactions between providers and most major insurance companies. It also offers electronic prescription software.
in a Friday updateChange Healthcare said it has successfully tested a new version of its “Rx ePrescribing Service” with provider and retail pharmacy partners. The service became available to all customers at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, though the company added that its existing Clinical Exchange ePrescribing provider’s tools are still not working.
UnitedHealth also launched a website Information about Change Healthcare’s response to the attack was released Friday. UnitedHealth said on its website that it is establishing a temporary financial assistance program to help providers who have experienced disruptions in payment distribution.
The company said there will be no fees, interest or other related charges for the program, and funds will need to be repaid upon resumption of standard operations. Providers can check their eligibility using a link to the new website.
“We understand the urgency of restoring our payment operations and continuing payments through the healthcare ecosystem,” UnitedHealth said on its website.
The company added that the program is not available to providers experiencing disruptions in claims submissions. UnitedHealth recommends using manual resolution methods for claims and says it is working to resolve the 15% of claims that resolution methods cannot resolve.
UnitedHealth said late Monday that more than 90% of pharmacies nationwide have set up modified electronic claims processing solutions, with the remainder setting up offline processing systems. The company said Friday its data showed drug claims “are approaching normal levels,” according to the new website.
Many of the company’s systems have been down for 10 consecutive days.
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