- Financial Strain: Small private practices and health-care providers are facing significant financial pressures due to the prolonged downtime of crucial reimbursement systems following the cyberattack on Change Healthcare.
- Operational Disruptions: Providers are unable to check patient eligibility for treatment or fill prescriptions electronically, leading to increased administrative workload and concerns about patient care.
- Revenue Cycle Disruption: The inability to receive reimbursements from insurers has halted many health systems’ revenue cycles, forcing smaller and mid-sized practices to make tough decisions to sustain operations.
- Provider Stress: Physicians like Dr. Purvi Parikh and Dr. Kiranjit Khalsa describe the breach as stressful, as they struggle to manage operational expenses without reimbursements and face uncertainties about when systems will be restored.
- Cyberattack Details: Change Healthcare identified the ransomware group Blackcat as the perpetrator of the attack and is collaborating with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to assess the breach.
- Patient Care Concerns: Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld warns of the potential impact on patient care, especially for practices operating on narrow margins, with some facing the risk of closure.
- Regulatory Issues: The cyberattack comes amidst regulatory scrutiny following the merger of Change Healthcare with Optum, raising concerns about competition and patient care disruption.
- Provider Response: Physicians like Dr. Ravi Parikh are exploring contingency plans, such as seeking cheaper medications, to mitigate the impact on patient care while maintaining focus on delivering quality services.
- Potential Long-Term Consequences: There are concerns that prolonged disruption to reimbursement systems could lead to the collapse of clinics and pharmacies, posing significant risks to the overall health care system.
Outages from Change Healthcare cyberattack causing financial ‘mess’ for doctors (CNBC)
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