The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday announced it will soon end a program providing advance payments to Medicare providers and suppliers affected by the Change Healthcare cyberattack.
The Feb. 21 attack triggered a disruption of payment and claims processing around the country, interfering with the ability of doctor’s offices and health care systems to file claims and get paid.
The program, which began in March to ease providers's cash flow, will close July 12 and CMS will no longer accept applications.
Providers are now successfully billing Medicare, the agency said.
“Our efforts helped minimize the disruptive fallout from this incident, and we will remain vigilant to be ready to address future events.” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement.
Payments were issued to over 4,200 Medicare Part A providers, such as hospitals, totaling more than $2.55 billion, according to CMS. More than 4,700 payments totaling more than $717 million were issued to Part B suppliers, including doctors, nonphysician practitioners and equipment suppliers.
CMS has recovered over 96% of the advanced payments, the agency said.
According to UnitedHealth Group, which owns Change Healthcare, the hack was conducted by a group called ALPHV, also known as "BlackCat.” After discovering the attack, UnitedHealth quickly disconnected the affected systems to limit damage and paid a $22 million ransom in bitcoin, CEO Andrew Witty told a Senate committee in May.
