"The magnitude of this moment deserves the same level of urgency and leadership our government has deployed to any national event of this scale before it. The measures announced today do not do that and are not an adequate whole of government response," Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the AHA, said in a statement.

With encouragement from the AMA and the AHA, Congress has urged CMS to issue advanced payments to providers, as it did during the pandemic, to ease cash deficits. Both associations say that small hospitals, which are already struggling amid labor costs and shortages, are unable to pay office bills or their employees, straining their financial woes further. While large hospitals can absorb the loss of reimbursement for now, many have been forced to take down their payment and billing management systems.


UnitedHealth Group, which is the largest health insurance company by revenue, says there is no indication that the attack affected Optum, UnitedHealthcare, and UnitedHealth Group systems. Change Healthcare has implemented a Temporary Funding Assistance Program to provide short-term cash payments to providers most impacted and has created a temporary version of its Rx ePrescribing service to help drugstores, hospital pharmacies, and other affected providers fill orders. UnitedHealth Group has also provided “effective electronic workarounds” for providers and pharmacists.

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