NEW YORK (Reuters) – The American Hospital Association (AHA) sent a letter to UnitedHealth Group assailing the company’s efforts to restore its financial systems in the wake of a cyberattack on the health insurer’s Change Healthcare unit.
AHA Richard Pollack wrote in a letter sent on Monday that a temporary assistance program put in place by UnitedHealth last week is “not even a band-aid” on the payment problems caused by the hack, and called the terms of the program “shockingly onerous.”
“We need real solutions — not programs that sound good when they are announced but are fundamentally inadequate when you read the fine print,” Pollack wrote in the letter to UnitedHealth Chief Operating Officer Dirk McMahon.
The Change hack was perpetrated by hackers who identified themselves as the “Blackcat” ransomware group.
Change said last week it had enabled a new version of its ePrescribing service for all its customers, more than a week after it reported a hack that had a knock-on effect on players across the U.S. healthcare system. Parent company UnitedHealth also announced a program to provide short term funding for providers unable to receive payment because of the hack.
The AHA also wrote to congressional leaders on Monday to ask for assistance to hospitals for the ongoing problems related to the hack.
(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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