Governor Josh Green, M.D.

DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

KA ʻOIHANA O KA LOIO KUHINA

 

JOSH GREEN, M.D.

GOVERNOR

KE KIAʻĀINA

 

ANNE LOPEZ

ATTORNEY GENERAL

LOIO KUHINA

News Release 2024-20

ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNE LOPEZ URGES UNITEDHEALTH GROUP TO HELP PATIENTS AND PROVIDERS HARMED BY CYBERATTACK

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 25, 2024

 

HONOLULU – Attorney General Anne Lopez announced today she has joined a bipartisan, multistate coalition of 22 attorneys general in sending a letter to UnitedHealth Group, Inc. — the nation’s largest health insurer and the parent company of Change Healthcare — urging the corporation to take more meaningful action to better protect providers, pharmacies and patients harmed by the recent catastrophic outage of Change Healthcare.

Change Healthcare runs the nation’s largest clearinghouse for electronic healthcare data. Its technological infrastructure is used by tens of thousands of providers, pharmacies, and insurers to verify insurance, confirm pre-authorization of procedures or services, exchange insurance claims data, and perform other administrative tasks essential to the delivery of health care.

On February 21, 2024, Change Healthcare experienced a cyberattack by ALPHV/Blackcat, which crippled its platform. In the intervening weeks, providers, pharmacies and facilities have reported disruptions to care infrastructure, inability to verify insurance coverage or obtain prior authorization, and inability to process claims or obtain reimbursements. Patients report delayed or denied access to prescription drugs, and scheduling appointments or procedures.

“Here in Hawaiʻi, we have heard from local medical providers who say the cyberattack is causing issues with access by way of delayed insurance authorizations and claim reimbursements. This is unacceptable. We need UnitedHealth Group to step up and do more to protect patients and providers,” said Attorney General Anne Lopez.

In the letter, Attorney General Lopez and the coalition call upon UnitedHealth Group to act quickly to limit the harm to the states’ care providers and patients. Specifically, they ask UnitedHealth Group to take the following steps:

• Enhance and expand financial assistance, free of onerous terms, to all affected providers, facilities, and pharmacies.
• Ensure its financial assistance programs are not providing more advantageous financial assistance to providers, practices, or facilities that are owned by UnitedHealth Group.
• Shield the business information of providers and pharmacies from United’s other corporate lines of business.
• Suspend requirements for prior authorizations, contemporaneous notifications of change of status, and other documentation requirements.
• Provide a dedicated help line for providers, facilities, and pharmacies, and state Attorneys General.
• Proactively inform providers, facilities, pharmacies, and industry groups of the steps they can take to preserve claims and receive prompt reimbursement.
• Expeditiously resolve the claims backlog and ensure prompt reimbursement of claims.
• Ensure providers, facilities, pharmacies, regulators, affected patients, and the public are informed of what data was compromised and what steps, if any, are needed for providers and patients to mitigate future identity theft or systems risks.

UnitedHealth Group acquired Change Healthcare in 2022.

Joining Attorney General Lopez in sending the letter to UnitedHealth Group are a bipartisan group of attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

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Media Contacts:

Dave Day

Special Assistant to the Attorney General

808-586-1284

Email: [email protected]

Web: http://ag.hawaii.gov

 

Toni Schwartz
Public Information Officer
Hawai‘i Department of the Attorney General
Office: 808-586-1252
Cell: 808-379-9249
Email: [email protected] 

Web: http://ag.hawaii.gov