While some of the nation's largest health systems have fully recovered from the Feb. 21 ransomware attack on UnitedHealth's Change Healthcare, smaller systems are still grappling with its effects, an Aug. 13 report from Strata Decision Technology found.
According to the report, the nation's largest health systems, which were hit hardest in the immediate aftermath of the ransomware attack, have also been the quickest to rebound. In contrast, the country's smaller health systems are still facing ongoing challenges.
Data show that these smaller systems are still losing approximately 3% to 5% of anticipated net revenue from patient encounters in February. Additionally, by the end of the second quarter, the smallest health systems — those with annual operating expenses under $500 million — were still facing the largest shortfall, with 11.1% of expected Medicare inpatient payments from February missing.
In contrast, mid-sized health systems, with operating expenses between $500 million and $1 billion, saw the best recovery, with just a 1.5% shortfall in February's Medicare inpatient payments.
Meanwhile, health systems with operating expenses between $1 billion and $2.5 billion had a 4.3% shortfall, while those exceeding $2.5 billion had a 5.5% gap. According to the report, this marks a significant improvement from the end of the first quarter, when payment shortfalls for February ranged between 18.2% and 20.3% across various health systems.