The Feb. 21 cybersecurity attack on UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare is taking a huge toll on physician finances, according to a recent study from the American Medical Association.
"The disruption caused by this cyber-attack is causing tremendous financial strain," AMA President Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, said in an April 10 news release. "These survey data show, in stark terms, that practices will close because of this incident, and patients will lose access to their physicians. The one-two punch of compounding Medicare cuts and inability to process claims as a result of this attack is devastating to physician practices that are already struggling to keep their doors open."
The 1,400-respondent survey was conducted from March 26 to April 3.
Here are five notes on how physicians have lost revenue:
1. Eighty percent have lost revenue from unpaid claims.
2. Eighty-five percent have had to commit additional staff resources to complete revenue cycle tasks.
3. Seventy-eight percent have lost revenue from claims that they have been unable to submit.
4. Fifty-one percent have lost revenue from the inability to charge patient copays or remaining obligations.
5. Fifty-five percent have had to use personal funds to cover practice expenses.