Link to OPTUM Temporary Funding Program

March 1, 2024

The article below references an Optum Financial Services lending program.  To determine eligibility and funding amount, you must register for the program at the website www.optum.com/temporaryfunding. An Optum Pay account is required to complete registration and to receive funds. Use your existing Optum Pay account or sign up for Optum Pay to log in.  This is not a program for providers who have had claims submission disruptions but rather for those whose payment distribution has been impacted.  The payments infrastructure we’re using to facilitate this program is the same capability we used to help the federal government administer the CARES Act funding support to providers at the height of the pandemic.

We have the full horsepower of UnitedHealth Group working expeditiously to solve this matter.

The article (below) just arrived from Modern Healthcare.   

MODERN HEALTHCARE ARTICLE:

Nine days after a cyberattack that disrupted pharmacy services across the U.S., UnitedHealth Group has established an alternate system and created a financial assistance program for healthcare providers, the company announced Friday.

Change Healthcare, part of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum subsidiary, opened a temporary version of its Rx ePrescribing service at 2 p.m. EST Friday for drugstores, hospital and nursing home pharmacies, and other affected providers. The healthcare sector has endured chaos since the ransomware group BlackCat (also known as ALPHV or Noberus) allegedly breached Change Healthcare Feb. 21.

The American Hospital Association, the National Community Pharmacists Association and other industry voices have complained that the ongoing Change Healthcare outage is causing financial problems.

To answer that, UnitedHealth Group launched a lending program through Optum Financial Services Friday.

“We understand the urgency of resuming payment operations and continuing the flow of payments through the healthcare ecosystem. While we are working to resume standard payment operations, we recognize that some providers who receive payments from payers that were processed by Change Healthcare may need more immediate access to funding,” UnitedHealth Group said in a notice on its website

“For provider organizations impacted by that payer system outage, we’ve established a temporary funding assistance program to help with short-term cash flow needs. No fees. No interest. No other associated costs. Once standard payment operations resume, the funds will simply need to be repaid,” the company said.

Change Healthcare processes more than 15 billion healthcare transactions a year including claims, prior authorization requests and reimbursements, according to the company.

“Our data suggests pharmacy claims are flowing at near-normal levels” and that 85% of medical claims are successfully being processed through backup mechanisms, UnitedHealth Group said.

The breached Change Healthcare systems will stay disconnected for the time being, UnitedHealth Group said. “Our systems remain offline because of our diligence, not because of compromise. They will remain offline until we are certain we can turn them back on safely. We took action so you did not have to disconnect,” the company said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.