NCPA and other health care provider organizations were recently invited to a roundtable hosted by HHS to discuss the response to the cyber-attack on Change Healthcare. (Last weekend, a letter penned by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie Su called on UnitedHealth Group and other insurance companies and payers to cooperate with health care providers whose cash flow and normal operations have been upended by the February cyber-attack). The outcome? Overall, providers are looking for relief from cash flow and administrative problems caused by the outage of many of the services Change provides to connect providers and payers. The discussion also highlighted that these payers continue to receive premium dollars and have adequate claims data to justify advanced payments. Last week HHS and the Department of Labor called on payers to help providers, hinting that in addition to continuing to care for patients, they also have employer obligations like payroll to meet. Becerra was particularly alarmed by reports from the pharmacy associations that patients are abandoning prescriptions because manufacturer assistance programs administered by Change have not been restored. NCPA is following up on this opportunity to engage HHS on prescription affordability.
NCPA
