PORTLAND, Ore. — A national cyberattack targeting the healthcare industry is impacting medical staff in Oregon. For almost a month, providers haven’t been able to collect insurance payments through a third-party, Change Healthcare.
The company pays out claims to doctors' offices and other service providers. Those claims make up a large portion of payments for many providers.
"Some businesses have to shut down temporarily in order to sort of save their business, basically," said Athena Phillips, the founder of Integrative Trauma Treatment Center.
Change Healthcare works with some of the biggest healthcare companies in the Portland metro area, such as Providence and Kaiser Permanente, a medical worker said.
Since many clinics or treatment centers are not receiving insurance payments, some medical workers may not be getting paid.
Workers at other centers told KGW that they are relying on savings in order to pay staff until the problem is fixed.
"It's really scary," Phillips said. “We basically cannot even submit our claims.”
Since Feb. 21, Phillips, like many medical workers around the country, haven’t received payments from Change Healthcare. Instead, she’s been forced to pay her staff through company savings.
"This is not something I could have foreseen,” Phillips said. “And I suspect there's going to be ripple effects that we can't anticipate."
Others are facing similar issues.
"About 60% of our clients that we see every week are Medicaid funded," Megan Geary, the CEO of Cascade Counseling and Consulting, said.
Between 60% to 75% of patient payments are affected by the cyberattack. Geary is also turning to company savings to pay staff.
"We've also had to apply for a business line of credit so that we can make payroll," Geary said.
Along with Providence and Kaiser Permanente, Change Healthcare provides service for Care Oregon and the Oregon Health Plan, Geary said.
"Those are some big names," she added.
Pharmacies are also dealing with repercussions of the cyberattack. KGW spoke with a pharmacist who didn’t want to go on camera, but said they were temporarily unable to search for prescription insurance claims. The pharmacy also was unable to utilize copay cards, which drug manufacturers use to provide discounts on medication. Those problems have since been resolved.
In a press release, UnitedHealth Group, which owns Change Healthcare, said it is working to mitigate impact to consumers and care providers. They expect to re-establish connection to its insurance claims network by Monday.
Still, some aren’t convinced the problem will be fixed quickly.
"I'm not holding my breath," Geary said.
"It's not proper for one company to have that much power," Phillips added.