Suzanne Roig has been a reporter with The ÅÝֱܽ²¥ since 2018 covering business and health in the region. When she's not working she enjoys taking her dog Pono out on hikes.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, accused UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday of not being in touch with its medical providers who still cannot process claims or receive payments following a cyberattack, and asked that the health insurer to respond by July 15.
"It is my concern that UnitedHealth Group is telling Congress one story, while leaving physicians' practices in the dark," Wyden wrote in a letter to the healthcare group.
Among the questions Wyden asked was how many practices still can't submit claims to payers or receive payments since the February cyberattack; when will customers' claims be processed; and how does the company plan to make customers whole for claims that now cannot be submitted because of missed deadlines.
Wyden learned of the extent of the cyberattack on Change Healthcare at a Thursday, June 27 town hall meeting in Redmond. He had just met with the CEO at a May 1 meeting of the Senate Committee on Finance and heard that the situation was improving, Wyden said in a letter to the company.
Change Healthcare, which is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, processes one-third of all medical claims in the United States, according to the American Hospital Association.Â
"I learned firsthand, however, that reimbursement for pathology practices in Bend is still blocked, rendering your testimony as wishful thinking and disconnected from the real-world experience of many provider practices," wrote Wyden.Â
UnitedHealth Group did not respond to requests for comment.Â
The attack on Change Healthcare was attributed to the company's multi-factor authentication, which adds an additional security step to accounts. Wyden learned of the continuing problems when a practice manager at Central Oregon Pathology spoke up at the Thursday, June 27 town hall meeting. The manager explained that the practice had 18,000 health claims unprocessed since February.
"Not only does reimbursement remain stopped, many providers have exclusive claims processing with Change Healthcare and remain in legal limbo as your representatives have not clearly released those providers to work with another clearinghouse in the aftermath of the attack," Wyden said in his letter. "You told this committee that providers would be released from exclusive contracts allowing them to purse other clearinghouse solutions.Â
"Your company's communications to my constituents has confused them so they still feel held hostage to these onerous terms."
Suzanne Roig has been a reporter with The ÅÝֱܽ²¥ since 2018 covering business and health in the region. When she's not working she enjoys taking her dog Pono out on hikes.
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