Hacked health care giant makes progress in recovery, but concerns for small clinics remain

The health insurance billing system in the United States is stabilizing following an unprecedented cyberattack on a key company last month, but smaller health clinics may still need help to ensure they can stay in business, senior Biden administration officials said Monday after meeting with health care executives.

The health insurance billing system in the United States is stabilizing following an unprecedented cyberattack on a key company last month, but smaller health clinics may still need help to ensure they can stay in business, senior Biden administration officials said Monday after meeting with health care executives. Ninety-five percent of Change Healthcare’s health insurance claims are now being processed, the insurance billing firm that has been roiled by the Feb. 21 hack, a senior administration official told reporters in an update on the federal response to the hack. “[O]ur real focus is making sure we don’t get to the point where there are issues with access to care,” the official said in a press call conducted on background, meaning reporters cannot cite officials by name. “And the way to do that is make sure you keep liquidity in the system.” “We are still hearing from small rural safety net providers who need cash assistance,” another senior official said. The cyberattack forced Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthGroup, to take computer systems that handle electronic payments and insurance claims offline in what the American Hospital Association (AHA) has called the most significant cyberattack in US health care history. Change Healthcare says it handles one in every three patient records in the US. Change Healthcare restored its electronic payments platform on March 15 and “is proceeding with payer implementations,” UnitedHealthGroup said in a statement on Monday. The statement indicated 99% of the company’s pharmacy network services are back online and the company is working on the rest.