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Welcome to MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society.  
As the statewide professional association for licensed 
physicians, we are dedicated to our mission to serve as 
Maryland's foremost advocate and resource for physicians, 
their patients, and 
the
public health.

Monday, December 09, 2024
You are here : Your Resource  >  Change Healthcare
Change Healthcare

On February 21, 2024, a severe cyberattack was discovered by UnitedHealth's Change Healthcare, causing extensive disruptions in healthcare services and claims processing. UnitedHealth Group promptly disconnected the affected systems to mitigate the attack and introduced a loan program to assist providers during the outage. They recommend that providers use alternative methods and manual workarounds for claims and authorizations during this period.

The following resource is intended to assist in communications with providers, members, partners and/or stakeholders who may be interested in the latest updates and resources available to support providers, pharmacies and patients in responding to questions and concerns.


  • Kathleen A. Birrane The Maryland Insurance Commissioner gave an update on the Maryland response to the Change Healthcare situation and answered questions:

Cyber Security in Medicine Webinar

  • Click here for the meeting recording here

  • For new users who'd like to view it, they will still need to "register" for it by entering their first and last name, and email address. After that they will be brought right into the recording. 

Maryland Total Cost of Care Agreement (2018)

Relevant Data Reports


Resources

American Medical Association

  • AMA continues physician-focused advocacy initiatives to address Change Healthcare cyberattack
    With the substantial impact of the Change Healthcare cyberattack on physician practices, the AMA’s advocacy work continues at all levels of government and across the payer community to find workable solutions that allow practices to maintain financial stability while providing timely patient care.
  • The AMA has a website on the Change Healthcare cybersecurity issue that outlines the latest developments, information for physician practices, and related AMA advocacy.
  • Based on AMA advocacy and ongoing concern with the impact the Change Healthcare cybersecurity attack is having on physician practices, CMS has extended the 2023 MIPS data submission deadline until April 15. Notably, this attack on our nation’s health care infrastructure coincides with the 2023 MIPS data submission window, which opened on January 2 and originally was scheduled to close on April 1.

     

    The AMA welcomes this extension until April 15, but we are concerned the timeline is insufficient. Therefore, we will continue to push CMS to automatically apply the Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances (EUC) hardship exception to all MIPS eligible clinicians for the 2023 performance period. Alternatively, we will encourage CMS to reopen the hardship exception application for the 2023 performance period and allow eligible clinicians to claim an exception due to the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

  • March 14, 2024:  Change Healthcare cyber outage

 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

  • On March 13, CMS published FAQs related to the Change Healthcare/Optum payment disruption accelerated and advance payments. These go into detail about what services qualify for accelerated and advance payments, application criteria, terms of repayment, financial concerns, and other topics.

 

Health and Human Services

 

Healthcare Leaders Association of Maryland

Maryland Department of Health

Maryland Insurance Administration

United Health Group