How UnitedHealth's CEO personally Supported a Physician Following a CyberAttack

A Florida doctor has described how UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty personally intervened to alleviate cash flow issues as providers throughout the country continue to experience financial problems as a result of the Change Healthcare breach in February.

“My practice was probably going out of business because it was losing money. I made payroll last week using personal funds,” Chad Frank, DO, posted on LinkedIn on March 20.

Change is used for billing procedures at the Non-Surgical Center for Physical and Sports Medicine in Plantation, Florida, where Dr. Frank is the founder and president.

Dr. Frank, “out of desperation,” emailed Mr. Witty to explain the state of his practice, but he didn’t anticipate a response from the head of the biggest healthcare institution in the country, which is still in shock after the biggest cyberattack in the U.S history. 

However, Mr. Witty responded, promising a fix, and shortly after, Optum Financial’s COO, Jeff Meyerhofer, texted.

Dr. Frank claims that he received an interest-free loan that must be repaid 45 business days until Change’s systems are completely restored, and that he was also set up with Optum Pay that same day.

“My business will survive and will thrive after this,” he declared in a letter. “Behind the veil of a huge corporation lies two individuals at the top who sincerely cared for me.”

In addition to providing physicians with over $2 billion in advances, UnitedHealth Group is introducing software to help with medical claim processing. 99 percent of pharmacy network services have been reinstated by the firm. Payer implementations are in progress as Change’s electronic payments infrastructure was brought back up on March 15. Here are the most recent updates on connection.

Nearly 1,000 hospitals participated in an American Hospital Association poll between March 9 and 12, and 94% of them stated that this attack had a financial impact, with more than half citing a “significant or serious” impact. A direct impact on patient care was noted by 74% of institutions. 

UnitedHealth has further been urged by HHS to “take responsibility to ensure no provider is compromised by their cash flow challenges” and to accelerate payment delivery. The government asked the business to update state Medicaid agencies and the healthcare system more often and transparently on its recovery efforts.