24 state Attorneys General, including the Attorney General for Washington State, sent United Healthcare a letter advising that it should not favor its own entities in its response to the widespread disruptions as a result of hacker activity on Change Healthcare.
Since Change Healthcare acts as the primary clearinghouse for claims submissions and electronic transmissions for many providers between a variety of payors, the impact on claims submission, payment and communications is broader. While Change Healthcare reportedly has regained most of its functions, many payors are not yet willing to reconnect through Change Healthcare. This leaves hospitals, providers, and pharmacies few or no workarounds for claims submission and payment, as well as critical transmissions such as prior authorization requests.
WSHA has been actively communicating the magnitude of the issue to state agencies. Recently the Office of the Insurance Commissioner sent a memorandum to carriers that they should consider the disruption to be an extenuating circumstance for purposes of prior authorization and they should provide flexibility in timely claims filing for impacted providers. It also advised carriers they should not restrict the ability of providers to change clearinghouses from Change Healthcare. More information and a link to resources is here. (Caitlin Safford, caitlins@wsha.org)
