UnitedHealth Group has taken a confrontational approach to retrieve outstanding balances on loans released to HIPAA-covered healthcare companies impacted by the Change Healthcare ransomware attack in February 2024. The attack resulted in an extended outage of Change Healthcare’s network, disrupting revenue cycles because companies could not issue claims. Many companies depleted their finances to maintain their businesses, and numerous companies almost closed down.
UnitedHealth Group responded through Optum and set up a temporary financial support program comprising zero-interest loans. The goal was to assist healthcare companies with temporary cash flow difficulties by releasing loans to be repaid as soon as operations were recovered and claims procedures were working. Optum mentioned that an invoice will be sent as soon as operations continue. There will be an extension of 45 business days added to the payment time from the invoice date. UnitedHealth Group released approximately $9 billion via the program and has recovered roughly $3.2 billion to date.
Although the due date for repayment has passed, many healthcare companies still struggle with finances and have not repaid the loans completely. A number of companies have complained about rejected claims because they could not meet the filing due date. There were reports that some companies could not file claims for 8 months following the ransomware attack.
Several news outlets have revealed that healthcare companies were given threatening letters requiring full repayment or risk of not getting reimbursement for claims. CEO Andrew Witty of UnitedHealth Group earlier said that companies will not be required to pay back the zero-interest loans until they are financially steady.
On April 11, 2025, OptumInsight CEO Roger Connor received a letter from the American Medical Association (AMA) urging a versatile approach to collecting loan repayment, as many smaller physician clinics continue to experience financial hardships because of lost income and extended claims disruption.
CEO James Madara of AMA mentioned hearing about Optum’s strict actions associated with repayment/recoupment of loans following the Change Healthcare cyberattack and the ensuing outage. He also mentioned that many practices continue to struggle with claims from the time linked to CHC’s outage and getting denials for not following UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) prompt filing due dates.
The AMA has advised Optum to permit medical professionals to figure out when they can pay back their loans. Every practice has specific levels of patient sizes, income generation, and expenditures. Each must be given a repayment plan that doesn’t repeat similar awful financial straits suffered during the cyberattack because of CHC’s non-functional systems.
Optum states that it is actively working with companies to reach a practical, flexible repayment plan depending on their particular situations. Several practices, including those that have begun loan repayment, have said their claims were withheld because of the outstanding loan.
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