The cyberattack on Change has some cancer centers scrambling to find money for chemotherapy to avoid delaying treatment, but Change said it plans to have cancer services up and running this week, The New York Times reported March 5.
Change Healthcare, which processes 15 billion transactions annually, has been out of commission for about three weeks, and providers are worried the repercussions could last for months. AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack called the cyberattack the "most serious incident of its kind leveled against a U.S. healthcare organization."
While Change works to get systems back online, hospitals and practices are on their own to continue care while waiting for claims to be processed.
Gainesville-based Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute had to sign new contracts with two competing clearinghouses in order to keep providing $300 million a month of chemotherapy to patients.
"We don't have that sort of money sitting around in a bank," said Lucio Gordan, MD, the institute's president, to the Times. "We're not sure how we're going to retrieve or collect the double expenses we're going to have by having multiple clearinghouses."
The company said March 5 it plans to have its data center rebuilt and database cancer services restored last week before turning its full focus to the reinstatement of applications and services. UnitedHealth said it expects to have key systems on their way to being restored by mid-March.
At least five lawsuits have been filed this month against UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare over the cyberattack that has crippled hospitals, physician practices and pharmacies around the country. The complaints include three in Tennessee and two in Minnesota from individual patients seeking class-action status.