On this photo illustration, UnitedHealth Group Inc logo seen displayed on a tablet.
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Change Healthcare on Friday said it’s finished establishing a new electronic prescription service, which could help provide some relief to pharmacies and physicians which were struggling to contend with the fallout from the continuing cyberattack.
UnitedHealth Group, Change Healthcare’s parent company, can also be launching a brief funding assistance program to assist providers manage their “short-term” money flow needs, the corporate said.
UnitedHealth discovered that a cyber threat actor breached a part of the unit’s information technology network on Feb. 21, based on a filing with the SEC. UnitedHealth isolated and disconnected the impacted systems “immediately upon detection” of the threat, the filing said, which has since caused ripples of disruption across the health-care system.
Change Healthcare offers tools for payment and revenue cycle management that help perform transactions between providers and most major insurance firms. It also offers electronic prescription software.
In an update Friday, Change Healthcare said it has successfully tested a new version of its “Rx ePrescribing service” with vendors and retail pharmacy partners. The service was enabled for all customers starting at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, though the corporate added that its existing Clinical Exchange ePrescribing providers’ tools are still not working.
UnitedHealth also launched a web site on Friday with details about Change Healthcare’s response to the attack. On the positioning, UnitedHealth said it’s establishing a brief funding assistance program to assist providers whose payment distributions have been interrupted.
The corporate said this system can have no fees, interest or other associated costs, and the funds will must be repaid when standard operations resume. Providers can check their eligibility using a link through the new website.
“We understand the urgency of resuming payment operations and continuing the flow of payments through the health care ecosystem,” UnitedHealth said on the positioning.
The corporate added that this system will not be meant for providers which are experiencing disruptions to their claims submissions. UnitedHealth recommends using manual workarounds for claims, and said it’s working to handle the 15% of claims that workarounds cannot address.
UnitedHealth said late Monday night that greater than 90% of the nation’s pharmacies had arrange modified electronic claims processing workarounds, while the remainder established offline processing systems. On Friday, the corporate said its data suggests pharmacy claims are “flowing at near-normal levels,” based on the new website.
Most of the company’s systems have been down for 10 straight days.
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