UnitedHealth Group has been pressured by the Biden administration and U.S. lawmakers to accelerate payments to pharmacies and health providers impacted by the widespread prescription processing outages stemming from the ransomware attack against subsidiary Change Healthcare, reports The Register.
Aside from calling for immediate action from UnitedHealth, both Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Labor Department Acting Secretary Julie Su also sought cooperation among insurance firms through the provision of interim payments and acceptance of paper claims. "While we believe payers have a unique responsibility and opportunity to address the challenge before us, we urge action on the part of any healthcare entity that can step up," said Becerra and Su in a letter to healthcare leaders. Meanwhile, both UnitedHealth and the federal government have been chastised by lawmakers, including Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who urged for more stringent healthcare cybersecurity standards. "Regulators must prevent companies in critical infrastructure sectors like health care from growing so large that they pose a systemic risk, as occurred here," Wyden added.
