Change Health Resources

Published in Resources on March 27, 2024

VGM recognizes that many of our members in the DMEPOS provider community have been negatively impacted by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare that occurred on February 21, 2024. We continue to monitor the situation and promote the creation of resources to help providers navigate through this with as little negative impact to their business as possible. To that end, below are a couple of resources that may not be well known to everyone yet, and we want to make sure you are aware of them so that you can evaluate whether they are a good fit to help you and your business through this disruption.

1. UHC/Optum’s Zero-Cost, Zero-Interest Weekly Advance Payment Program – UnitedHealthcare and Optum are offering this no-cost program to address cashflow issues for providers impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack and subsequent program outage. Some key highlights of the program are as follows:
   • No upfront costs, and no interest charged on the advance payments received by providers through this program.
   • Payments available to providers on a weekly basis.
   • Providers can choose whether to accept a full payment, partial payment, or no payment each week.
   • Payments received will have to be repaid within 45 business days after claims/payment processing services have been restored.
   • Providers are eligible if they: 1) are UHC providers, or 2) receive payments from payers processed through Change Healthcare, or 3) work with other payers who have not offered advanced payments or are implementing other workarounds or have exhausted all connection options.
   • Providers will need to create an “Optum Pay” account if they don’t already have one in order to utilize the program.
   • Please click HERE for more information about the program.
2. Medicaid Flexibilities Offered – CMS has asked state Medicaid programs to allow for additional flexibilities for providers during this time. Medicaid programs can make interim payments to providers, and Medicaid MCOs can do the same. More information regarding that guidance from CMS can be found here. Be on the lookout for changes within your state, or better yet, reach out to them to discuss the changes they have made or plan to make as a result of this new guidance from CMS.
3. CMS Medicare Advance Payment Program – CMS has created an accelerated or advanced payment program called Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) Aceelerated and Advanced Payments program, but it only applies to providers who are experiencing a disruption in their Medicare Part A/B claims. An FAQ document regarding this CMS program can be found here.
4. Individual Private Payer Programs – Some commercial/private insurance companies are offering similar advance payment programs or making changes to claims processing rules (extending timely filing, offering alternative clearinghouse connections, etc.). You would need to check with each of your payers individually to see what changes they have made for you or programs they are offering in response to the Change Healthcare cyberattack and subsequent service outage.