03/07/2024
Cyberattack on Change Healthcare – Latest Information
Over the last two weeks, since the Feb. 21 cyberattack on Change Healthcare, members have contacted OSMA about the major disruption the attack has caused to their practices. While the process of resolving the issue is ongoing, OSMA has been working with our state and national partners to ensure we’re providing the latest information to members.
In the last few days, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) and the AMA have released updates and resources for practices.
HHS and CGS Medicare:
Both HHS and CGS Medicare have provided information and resources for practices— specific to Medicare billing. HHS has taken a variety of steps working with Medicare Administrative Contractors and Medicare Advantage plans to provide practices with alternate solutions to submitting claims and CGS Medicare the Medicare Part B contractor for Ohio has outlined solutions for practices through its MyCGS Provider Portal.
Ohio Medicaid’s Statement:
On February 21, Change Healthcare (CHC), a healthcare technology company part of Optum and owned by UnitedHealth Group, experienced a cyberattack that resulted in the company immediately taking their systems offline. The attack significantly impacts healthcare providers, trading partners, and Medicaid members nationwide.
Upon announcement of the attack, and due to CHC’s role as an ODM trading partner and a clearinghouse for multiple providers and healthcare covered entities, ODM immediately disabled connections to and from CHC. The Ohio Medicaid Enterprise System (OMES) remains fully operational. All managed care entity (MCE) connections with OMES remain enabled, and MCEs are actively exchanging EDI transactions.
MCEs with downstream services and connections to CHC took mitigating actions. Some MCEs may have an indirect impact due to the CHC outage that could lead to disruption or delays in claim processing.
ODM advises trading partners and providers to continue their day-to-day operations with the OMES.
ODM is monitoring the situation closely and waiting for additional clarification regarding when it will be safe to restore the CHC services. When ODM can securely reconnect with CHC, ODM will send an update via email. ODM will retain the 835 ERAs destined for CHC until Change Healthcare can securely reconnect and retrieve this information. Optum and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency are providing additional updates on this issue.
For additional help, please contact the ODM Integrated Helpdesk (IHD) at 800‐686‐1516 (option 7) or IHD@medicaid.ohio.gov. IHD representatives are available 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Eastern time, Monday‐Friday.
AMA Resources:
The AMA has created a dedicated webpage with information related to the Change Healthcare incident. Additionally, the AMA has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services calling on them to address the issues that physicians are facing due to the cyberattack.