As of March 18, UnitedHealth Group (UHG), parent company of Change Healthcare, has restored its electronic payment platform, which will allow payers to process and disburse payments to providers using ACH and virtual credit cards; and it began releasing medical claims preparation software with the goal of restoring the claims processing functionality within the week. UHG also updated repayment terms for its Temporary Assistance Funding Program. Specifically, UHG has lengthened the repayment timeline from 30 days to 45 business days following a provider’s receipt of a repayment notice. In addition, the repayment notice will not be sent until the Change claims or payment processing services are back in operation and impacted payments are processed. In other words, payments have to be going out to providers before a repayment notice will be sent. UHG also retracted other previous requirements for receiving the funds such as arbitration, indemnification, limitation of liability, and its ability to change the terms. It also rescinded the provision that said UHG’s Optum Financial Services could debit owed funds directly from a provider’s account. Once assistance is approved, UHG reports that providers can expect ACH payments within 3-5 days. For some providers, for which UHG has visibility into their claims and payment history, UHG is “preloading funds into these providers’ Optum accounts. The provider only needs to log in and accept the funds.” For providers that already have an OptumPay account, it might be beneficial to log in to see if such funds have been preloaded.
For more information on the UHG Temporary Funding Assistance program, click here and expand the various FAQs for further details and updates.
LeadingAge members are encouraged to recheck their eligibility status for funds through UHG. For other payers and plans, providers should see if interim funding assistance is being offered, if they are working with an alternative clearinghouse, or if they are accepting paper claims. Eligibility for and availability of funds has continued to evolve in recent days. For example, Highmark is offering interim financial assistance as of March 12. Providers can find more details in the Highmark provider portal on how to apply. Modern Healthcare reports other insurers like Centene, Humana, MetroPlusHealth, Oscar Health, and Ucare have focused on temporarily shifting their clearinghouse work to Availity, a UHG competitor, to process claims.