Change Healthcare’s new e-prescription tool amid cyber attack

Change healthcare on Friday said has completed the creation of a new e-prescription service that could help relieve pharmacies and doctors struggling to cope with the effects of the ongoing cyber attack.

UnitedHealth GroupChange Healthcare’s parent company, also launched a temporary funding assistance program to help providers manage their “short-term” cash flow needs, the company said.

UnitedHealth discovered that a cyber threat actor breached part of the unit’s information technology network on Feb. 21, according to submission with the SEC. UnitedHealth isolated and shut down the affected systems “immediately upon discovery” of the threat, the document said, which has since caused waves of disruption across the health care system.

Change Healthcare offers payment and revenue cycle management tools that help transact between providers and most major insurance companies. It also offers electronic prescription software.

In an update friday, Change Healthcare said it has successfully tested a new version of its “Rx ePrescribing service” with providers and retail pharmacy partners. The service was enabled for all customers as of 2 p.m. ET on Friday, though the company added that existing Clinical Exchange ePrescribing provider tools are still down.

UnitedHealth also launched website on Friday with information about Change Healthcare’s response to the attack. On the site, UnitedHealth said it is establishing a temporary funding assistance program to help providers whose payment allocations have been interrupted.

The company said the program would have no fees, interest or other related costs and the funds would have to be disbursed when standard operations resume. Providers can check their eligibility using a link through the new website.

“We understand the urgency of resuming payment operations and continuing the flow of payments through the healthcare ecosystem,” UnitedHealth said on the site.

The company added that the program is not intended for providers who experience interruptions in submitting claims. UnitedHealth recommends using manual workarounds for claims and said it is working to address the 15 percent of claims that workarounds cannot address.

UnitedHealth said late Monday that more than 90 percent of the nation’s pharmacies have created modified workarounds to process electronic claims, while the rest have established offline processing systems. On Friday, the company said its data suggests pharmacy claims are “flowing at near-normal levels,” according to the new website.

Many of the company’s systems were down for 10 days in a row.

WATCHING: “You can’t scramble that egg”