Will the Change Healthcare Outage Prod Execs to Make Technology Improvements?

March 18, 2024 ‐ HealthLeaders Media

By Eric Wicklund

The workaround is a popular healthcare technology term right now.

As healthcare organizations across the country assess the damage caused by the Change Healthcare outage, executives are not only looking at the financial fallout but also the technological repercussions. In short, what will health systems need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again—or if it does happen, that they have the resources in place to minimize damage?

According to the results of an American Hospital Association survey of roughly 1,000 hospitals released on Friday, some 81% of hospitals found that workarounds enacted to keep operations going during the outage were only “somewhat successful,” while 11% found that workarounds didn’t work at all. And two-thirds of those responding to the survey said it difficult or very difficult to deploy workarounds, particularly in switching clearinghouses.

As has been well-reported, the financial implications are even more alarming. According to the survey, 94% reported being affected financially, with more than half sustaining “significant or serious” damage. About one-third reported impacted to at least half of their revenue and about 60% saw that impact to be more than $1 million a day. Some 44% expect the negatives to continue for another two to four months, and more than 20% have no idea when the tide will turn.

The takeaway is that healthcare executives will need to think long and hard about what they need to do to improve their technology infrastructure, on both the financial and clinical sides.

“These survey findings are another irrefutable reminder that the impact of this cyberattack is far reaching and far from over,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said in a press release accompanying the survey. “When nearly every hospital says they are experiencing a financial loss and half of those say it’s ‘significant or serious,’ with no immediate end in sight, then the debate about whether we need to help them should be over.”

The AHA is one of several organizations calling on federal authorities to take action, and an investigation has reportedly been launched to see whether UnitedHealth Group did anything wrong that led to the attack or caused it to be so damaging.

“We continue to call on Congress and the Administration to take additional actions now to support providers as they deal with significant fallout from this historic attack,” Pollack said. “We also need UnitedHealth Group and commercial payers to step up and support patients and providers on the front lines by waiving prior authorization and timely filing requirements, as well as advancing payments that will allow providers to continue providing 24/7 care to communities.”

Beyond that, healthcare organizations need to take stock of how an incident like this affects clinical care. According to the AHA survey, almost three of every four hospitals reported a negative effect to patient care, and nearly 40% said patients had difficulties accessing care, most often because of disruptions to the health plan authorization process.

Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation, Technology, and Pharma for HealthLeaders.

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