News: CMS funding post-2024 cyberattack led to overpayments, underfunding, study suggests
Funding CMS distributed to hospitals affected by the 2024 cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, was inappropriately allocated, a new study published in Health Affairs suggests.
The study analyzed data from 8,538 organizations that received advanced and accelerated Medicare payments after the UnitedHealth Group was hacked in February 2024.
At that time, CMS distributed $3.3 billion to providers experiencing revenue disruptions, including $2.2 billion to hospitals.
According to the authors of the report, “the opt-in, one-size-fits-all nature of this relief funding simultaneously resulted in overpayments to many participating hospitals and underparticipation by many hospitals that had likely been disrupted by the cyberattack.”
Editor’s note: To read the Health Affairs article, click here. To read more about the 2024 cyberattack, click here.