The HIPAA Journal reports:
UnitedHealth Group has adopted an aggressive approach to recover outstanding balances on loans issued to healthcare providers affected by the February 2024 ransomware attack on Change Healthcare. The attack caused a prolonged outage of Change Healthcare’s systems, causing massive disruption to revenue cycles as providers were unable to submit claims. Many providers were forced to exhaust personal funds to keep their businesses open, and many providers were pushed to the brink of closure.
In response, UnitedHealth Group, via Optum, established a temporary financial assistance program consisting of no-interest loans. The aim was to help healthcare providers through their short-term cash flow problems with the loans due for repayment once operations were restored and claims processes were back up and running. Optum stated that an invoice would be sent when operations resume, with the payment period extended to 45 business days from the invoice date. UnitedHealth Group paid out around $9 billion through the program and claims to have recovered around $3.2 billion so far.
… Several media outlets have recently reported that healthcare providers have been receiving threatening letters demanding repayment in full or risk reimbursement for claims being withheld. UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty had previously stated that providers would not be required to repay the interest-free loans until they determined they were financially stable.
Read more at The HIPAA Journal.
