Last month, a major cyber attack on one of the nation’s largest healthcare platforms left some mental health providers on Long Island in dire financial straits, with at least some providers furloughed or paid. I am forced to pay my debts.
Clinton Clovis, president of New Hope Mental Health Counseling Services, which has offices in Valley Stream and Rockville Center, is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that is commonly used for medical billing and insurance claims. He said his company, Change Healthcare, was hacked, putting his business on the brink. of disaster.
In recent days, Clovis said he was forced to furlough four of his 65 employees and reduce the hours of the remaining staff. Clovis announced Friday that for the first time, he was not paying his employees, although all of his employees have agreed to work temporarily without pay until the situation calms down.
“The daily reimbursements for the claims we submit have been reduced by about two-thirds,” Clovis said. Until recently, he used a $130,000 line of credit to pay for staff and rent. “This has resulted in a significant reduction in revenue.”
Clovis said New Hope, which conducts 700 mental health counseling sessions a week, uses a company called Tebra for insurance verification, prescription management, claims processing and reimbursement. Tebra said its operations were significantly impacted by the Feb. 21 hack.
Clovis said New Hope patients’ prescriptions were not affected by the hack.
The ransomware attack, believed to be perpetrated by a “nation-state,” disrupted operations at pharmacies, doctors, mental health providers, and hospitals across the country, and caused major disruption to insurance and shellfish billing.
Jeffrey Friedman, chief executive officer of Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services in Hicksville, said his team has been forced to find “workarounds” to process bills. .
“These require billers to spend many hours of their time. This eliminates the need to bill other services,” Friedman said, adding that the company has lost employee payroll due to the hack. It added that it has not been forced to slack off or furlough any employees. “He leveraged cash flow and staff time to problem solve, which had a ripple effect on all other day-to-day operations.”
UnitedHealth Group said in a statement Friday that pharmacy services are now fully operational and the electronic payment platform should be up and running by March 15.
The company said it began testing and re-establishing connectivity to its claims network and software on March 18 and expects to have service restored by that week.
“We are committed to providing relief to those impacted by this malicious attack on America’s health care system,” said UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Whitty. “All of us at UnitedHealth Group feel a deep responsibility for recovery and will work tirelessly to ensure health care providers can care for and see patients and patients have access to medicine. It continues.”
On Friday, Gov. Cathy Hochul announced that the state Department of Financial Services will issue a letter to health insurance companies and other benefit issuers asking them how to work with health care providers to avoid interruptions in care and address cash flow interruptions. He said he provided guidance on.
“Healthcare payers and providers need to work together to ensure digital events don’t prevent people from receiving appropriate care,” Hochul said.
Also on Friday, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, along with nearly two dozen members of the House and Senate, called on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to issue an “enhanced emergency response to outages within the healthcare ecosystem.” A letter was issued requesting the government to “develop a contingency plan.”
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services urging it to use its authority to pay hospitals before receiving their claims. Schumer also wants UnitedHealth Group to help health care providers stay afloat with loans.
with Ariel Dollinger
