United Hopes to Bring Change Healthcare Back Online

[somarco]

The cyberattack against Change has disrupted the healthcare industry for nearly three weeks, creating a range of financial and operational challenges for providers.

Providers have said receiving payment from patients and insurers, verifying coverage, submitting prior authorization requests or exchanging clinical records has been affected by the outage. Workarounds to affected systems are also time-consuming, adding extra work for providers and administrative staff, provider groups said.

Late last week, UnitedHealth reported a timeline for restoring operations, expecting to bring electronic payments back online beginning March 15 and starting to test its claims network and software on March 18.

Providers with weak liquidity before the cyberattack are more likely to run out of cash, and those that rely on Change alone for filing claims are also at higher risk.

Small, financially struggling providers at risk from Change cyberattack: Moody’s

Larger providers, however, aren’t immune from cash flow challenges, especially if UnitedHealth Group is unable to restore systems by mid-March.

www.healthcaredive.com

 

[GoPokes]

We are all patiently waiting on this to get fixed. It has certainly held up some of my business submission and processing.

 

[somarco]

It is a real mess for sure. Health care systems have a soft underbelly and will continue to be exploited.

There are other industries, private and public sector, that are easy targets for cyber attack and data breach.

It surprises me how little attention this thread has received. Seems like there are a number of agents who are out of touch about what goes on that has an impact on our clients.

 

[MedicareAgent]

Agents aren't "out of touch", we are busy working.

 

[somarco]

I work to find ways to improve the lives of clients and prospects, find ways to save them money and alert them to challenges they may encounter.

This activity generates referrals and new business.

Win-win.

YMMV

 

[T Sparks]

Agents aren't "out of touch", we are busy working.

Gotcha, some got a lot of time on their hands, and think they know it all.

 

[Ashmeade]

It's probably good to let your BoB know the very-real, very-sophisticated threats they face from cyber criminals. It'll only get worse from here as technology adapts and AI continues to mature. Do you think criminals stop at Amazon and UnitedHealthcare? They'll 'take-a-penny' from as wide-audience as they can. If they continue to be successful, the implications are heavy.

Check this, sent to me from RPost:

"However, the cybercriminals seem to be celebrating their innovation and problem-solving prowess as well, and as of this week, they are $26 million richer. Just this week, a finance professional was lured into mis-sending $26 million in fifteen sequential wire transfers.

So how did the criminals ensure success? They used innovative AI for nefarious purposes all the while innovating how to communicate with the finance chiefs that they were looking to fool. They started with a lookalike domain email lure that was clever enough to entice the finance chief to join a web meeting to discuss necessary money transfers with some finance team members.

After the initial impostor email lure, the cybercriminals used public social media and webinar recordings to parse through AI Deep Fake technology to generate lookalike and soundalike personas of the finance team, and these impostor personas logged into the web meeting with the finance team and gave the verbal approvals for the transfers."

 

[somarco]

@Ashmeade there is virtually nothing patients can do to prevent ID theft as it relates to health care. Thieves go after big game such as hospitals, insurance carriers and large provider organizations.

They look to steal thousands of ID's not a few.

A local hospital had patient records hacked a few year ago when the thieves found entry to hospital records via the (Jimmy) Carter Center website donation portal.

Patients who monitor their claims and look for suspicious activity are often the first way intrusion is discovered.

 

[Ashmeade]

@Ashmeade there is virtually nothing patients can do to prevent ID theft as it relates to health care. Thieves go after big game such as hospitals, insurance carriers and large provider organizations.

They look to steal thousands of ID's not a few.

A local hospital had patient records hacked a few year ago when the thieves found entry to hospital records via the (Jimmy) Carter Center website donation portal.

Patients who monitor their claims and look for suspicious activity are often the first way intrusion is discovered.

I agree on monitoring claims, but I disagree that thieves only targets are the 'big players'.

As technology becomes more sophisticated, the cost is reduced when targeting groups of individuals or smaller business entities. It's much easier today to basically 'wholesale' their operations. It's much less risky, as well. It's more lucrative to take a dollar from ten thousand people than ten thousand from someone like UHC, an entity that at least has some power and leverage. I've seen figures that at least half of cyber-attacks are against a small business.

I've looked at some apps that will look over your hospital bill for problems. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I guess I'm splitting hairs here with you. It's an INCREDIBLY important topic. Just wanted to add to the conversation!

 

[somarco]

@Ashmeade my comment was directed towards "consumer advocates" et al who tell you to shred you information to prevent dumpster divers from getting your information. Also, use your hand to shield your pin from prying eyes at the checkout lane.

I seriously doubt anyone goes through trash in hopes of finding a medical or credit card bill and use that to steal your identity.

If anyone does that they are petty thieves who will usually be caught as long as the local authorities take action . . . which they rarely do.

What Can a Scammer Do With Your Medicare Number?

Scammers use phishing tactics to trick victims into giving up their Medicare number — and then use it to steal health benefits or worse.

www.aura.com

Yes, all of us must be vigilant but monitoring your bank and medical billing statements can go a long way towards reducing ID theft.