UnitedHealth says it’s doled out $2 billion to health care providers after cyberattack

UnitedHealth Group, in a public update Monday, says it has provided more than $2 billion to health care providers that have suffered financial disruption in the fallout of a cyberattack.

The cyberattack against its Change Healthcare subsidiary at the end of February had a cascading affect on hospitals, clinics and health care providers across the country that relied on the company’s medical information services for billing.

The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based health care giant said it continues to make progress toward re-launching those IT systems this month.

The update comes after three health care providers last week told the Star Tribune about their challenges accessing assistance funds from the company. The American Hospital Association earlier this month blasted UnitedHealth’s initial financial relief program as insufficient.

“We continue to make significant progress in restoring the services impacted by this cyberattack,” Andrew Witty, the chief executive at UnitedHealth Group, said in a statement. “We know this has been an enormous challenge for health care providers and we encourage any in need to contact us.”

UnitedHealth is continuing to enhance and expand funding support for health care providers, the company said, while making it easier for them to access those funds. In its statement, UnitedHealth said it “recognizes the high level of fragmentation of the U.S. health system can result in uneven experiences.”

The cyberattack in February targeted Change Healthcare, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that runs a widely used clearinghouse for electronic claims data that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually. The systems are involved in one out of every three patient records in the U.S.

UnitedHealth Group is cooperating with a federal investigation into the cyberattack while scrambling to restore Change Healthcare systems that it shut down to contain the threat.