The American Medical Association said physician practices will face "significant financial disruptions" after Change Healthcare shared that certain key functionalities will not be tested or fixed until March 18.
"The prospect of a month or more without a restored Change Healthcare claims system emphasizes the critical need for economic assistance to physicians, including advancing funds to financially stressed medical practices," Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, president of the AMA, said in a March 8 news release shared with Becker's.
Change Healthcare, part of UnitedHealth's Optum, is expected to have its electronic payment platform available for connection on March 15 after a Feb. 21 "cybersecurity incident" that affected its nationwide healthcare connectivity and operations.
Its medical claims network and software is expected to start testing and connectivity reestablishment March 18, with the company working throughout that week to restore the service. The technology company's pharmacy electronic prescribing is also fully functional with claim submission and payment transmission as of March 7.
"The AMA agrees with UnitedHealth's call for all payers to advance funds to physicians as the most effective way to preserve medical practice viability during the financial disruption, especially for practices that have been unable to establish workarounds to bridge the claims flow gap until the Change Healthcare network is reestablished," Dr. Ehrenfeld said.
While Dr. Ehrenfeld said the information on timelines and new financial measures that UnitedHealth has provided is helpful, he added that Change has more work to do in addressing physician concerns.
"Full transparency and security assurances will be critical before connections are reestablished with the Change Healthcare network," Dr. Ehrenfeld said.