Biden Administration Officials Urge Health Care Executives to Act Quickly in Response to Cyberattack’s Financial Consequences
The United States senior Biden administration officials held an urgent meeting with health care industry executives, including Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, on March 8, to discuss the ongoing financial consequences of the cyberattack that hit Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, last month. According to sources familiar with the matter, this meeting was aimed at expediting the process of getting emergency funding flowing to cash-strapped health care practices that have been heavily affected by the cyberattack.
The high-stakes gathering was attended by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, senior White House officials, and key executives from the health care sector. The administration’s primary focus was on encouraging these industry leaders to take decisive action in addressing the financial challenges that many healthcare providers are currently facing as a result of the cyberattack.
Change Healthcare, which processes approximately 15 billion transactions annually and serves thousands of hospitals, insurers, and pharmacies across the country, has been at the epicenter of this crisis. The ransomware attack disrupted some insurance payments for prescription drugs, leaving many healthcare providers to cover the costs upfront and hope for reimbursement in the future. Some health care organizations have reportedly lost over $100 million daily due to this outage, as per earlier estimates from industry analysts.
The White House National Security Council declined to provide immediate comment on the matter. The Department of Health and Human Services and UnitedHealthGroup have also been contacted for their perspective on the meeting, but no comments have been received as of now.
The Washington Post was the first to report on this pressing issue and the subsequent meeting between administration officials and industry executives.
Although Change Healthcare announced plans to have its electronic payment platform back contact by March 15 and its network for submitting claims restored the following week, the extensive financial damage inflicted by the cyberattack is expected to take a considerably longer time to rectify. This is according to the concerns raised by both healthcare providers and industry analysts who have been closely monitoring this situation.
