Change HealthCare Cybersecurity Incident – Page 2

Change to Release Medical Claims Software

On March 18th UnitedHealth Group said they had begin to release medical claims preparation software, a move it says is a critical step in restoring services.

The software will be rolled out to thousands of customers in the next several days, according to the announcement. UHG said that it intends to have third-party attestations available before services are fully online.

Change Healthcare’s electronic payments platform was brought back online as of March 15, and UHG is now “proceeding with payer implementations.

The insurer has also suspended prior authorizations for outpatient care, and is reviewing similar steps for inpatient admissions in Medicare Advantage

Optum Temporary Funding Assistance

The Temporary Funding Assistance Program is designed to help bridge the gap in short-term cash flow needs for providers impacted by the disruption of Change Healthcare’s services.

Eligible providers:

Providers who receive payments from payers that are processed by Change Healthcare.
UnitedHealthcare medical, dental and vision providers.
Providers who have exhausted all available connection options or may be in the process of implementing technical workaround solutions and who work with a payer who has opted not to advance funds to providers during the period when Change Healthcare systems remain down

For questions contact (877) 702-3253

Your Mac is Novitas Solutions

Today, HHS is announcing immediate steps that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking to assist providers to continue to serve patients. CMS will continue to communicate with the health care community and assist, as appropriate. Providers should continue to work with all their payers for the latest updates on how to receive timely payments.

Medicare providers needing to change clearinghouses that they use for claims processing during these outages should contact their Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) to request a new electronic data interchange (EDI) enrollment for the switch. The MAC will provide instructions based on the specific request to expedite the new EDI enrollment. CMS has instructed the MACs to expedite this process and move all provider and facility requests into production and ready to bill claims quickly. CMS is strongly encouraging other payers, including state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies and Medicaid and CHIP managed care plans, to waive or expedite solutions for this requirement

CMS has contacted all of the MACs to make sure they are prepared to accept paper claims from providers who need to file them. While we recognize that electronic billing is preferable for everyone, the MACs must accept paper submissions if a provider needs to file claims in that method.

Novitas Phone # (855) 252-8782. Have your PTAN and the last 5 of your TIN.

Availity Self-Service Resource