On February 21, 2024 the healthcare industry was struck with one of the most detrimental hack that I have heard of. Change Healthcare is a system that is a part of Optum holding the goal of helping payers, providers, and consumers improve clinic and financial outcomes. Change Healthcare is the halfway point of insurance companies and medical providers. Medical Associates was made aware of the virtual hack via email, but I did not realize the significant toll it would take on the business end of the healthcare industry.

With insurance there is such thing as timely filing. This is the given amount of time from when a patient was seen to when an insurance company is considered liable for those charges. This made this situation difficult. Change healthcare was down over a month before Amber and the physicians started to panic. At the end of March Amber decided not to waste anymore time and to take action as there was no update as to when Change would be up to send out claims. We spent many days printing and hand mailing claims to the insurance companies as it is detrimental to get the claims out to ensure payments are received as soon as possible.

Medical Associates is lucky that they have a solid Money Market account that ensured the upkeep of the practice while Change Healthcare was down. Throughout the down time, many medical offices expressed financial concerns as they rely on a month to month income. As of mid April 2024, Change Healthcare is back up and running, but that short time showed many offices the need for financial change to become more stability and also brings up the question about the security of health information being stored online being increased as we evolve with the technological times.