(Reuters) – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Monday it plans to end an advance payment program it launched to help some Medicare providers and suppliers hurt by failures at UnitedHealth’s (NASDAQ:) technology unit Change Healthcare (NYSE: ). .
It launched the payment program in March after the Feb. 21 hack of Change Healthcare by the group ALPHV, also known as “BlackCat,” disrupted health insurance payments across the United States.
CMS plans to close the program on July 12. The company said it will not accept new applications for accelerated or advance Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption payments after this date.
The program has made accelerated payments totaling more than $2.55 billion to more than 4,200 health care providers, including hospitals, according to CMS.
It also made 4,722 advance payments totaling more than $717.18 million to providers, including physicians, nonphysicians and durable medical equipment suppliers.
CMS said it has already recovered more than 96% of these payments to date, and providers and providers are now successfully billing Medicare.
Any Medicare providers experiencing billing or payment difficulties should contact Change, he said, adding that they will continue to monitor the impact of the cyberattack.
Change Healthcare processes about 50% of medical claims in the United States for approximately 900,000 physicians, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories.
In May, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Whitty said hackers had potentially stolen data belonging to a third of Americans.
Since the February attack, UnitedHealth has provided $6.5 billion in accelerated payments and loans to health care providers, including hospitals.