Survey reveals broad impact of Change Healthcare cyberattack

Editor's Note

The recent cyberattack on Change Healthcare created a financial impact for the lion’s share of US hospitals surveyed recently by the American Hospital Association, with more than half reporting “significant or serious” impact and three of every four also reporting direct impacts on patient care.

These data reflect responses collected from more than 1,000 hospitals between March 9 and March 12 for the organization’s nationwide survey. Highlights include:

• 74% of hospitals report a direct impact on patient care, with nearly 40% citing barriers to access resulting from difficulties with prior authorization.
• 94% report some kind of financial impact, which is “significant or serious” for more than half
• 82% report an impact to cash flow.
• Of that 82%, more than 33% report an impact to more than half of their revenue; nearly 60% say the impact to revenue is at least $1 million per day; 44% say they expect the impact to continue for 2-4 more months; and more than 20% are uncertain about the extent of the impact.
• 81% report that workarounds are only somewhat successful.
• 11% say workarounds have not been successful.
• 67% report difficulty with switching clearinghouses.

Calling the February 21 attack the “most significant and consequential cyberattack on the US healthcare system in American history,” the report notes that Change Healthcare processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and touches 1 in every 3 patient records.