Created February 22, 2024 By MDScripts
NOTICE: [Updated 3/5 - Final Update] An outage at Change Healthcare/Optum/ExpressScripts is affecting NCPDP claim processing for many PBMS. There is no ETA on resolution, but you can track the status on their incident page linked in the full article below.
Change Healthcare has published a resource page to provide details on their ongoing response to the cybersecurity incident on February 22. This resource contains answers to frequently asked questions as well as resources for both Pharmacies and Providers who may need operational or financial assistance in dealing with the ongoing outage.
Provider Temporary Funding Assistance Program
MDScripts Impact: To date, MDScripts has re-routed over 150 sites that were previously submitted on the Change Healthcare network over to Relay Health. If you are still having difficulties transmitting claims, please reach out to support@mdscripts.com or open a help desk ticket. E-prescribing to pharmacies on Change Healthcare systems should now be fully operational.
Updated notice from Surescripts regarding connectivity to Change Healthcare systems for e-prescribing:
On March 1, in an effort to restore E-Prescribing services with Surescripts, Change Healthcare launched a new E-Prescribing environment that is connected to servers that were not compromised. A third-party auditor reviewed the new E-Prescribing environment, and Surescripts validated the attestation provided by Change Healthcare. As of March 1, Change Healthcare resumed E-Prescribing operations in this new environment. Surescripts is still working to restore EPCS service for all pharmacies connected through Change Healthcare. A notification will be sent as soon as this issue is fully resolved.
Recommended Actions: All EHR vendors and health systems should resume normal operations and encourage prescribers to utilize E-Prescribing. No action is required to route e-prescriptions through the new environment. As always, EHR vendors and health systems should download an updated pharmacy file nightly.
At this time, MDScripts is working to migrate all sites that were registered with the Change Healthcare switch to the Relay Health switch. Many sites are still pending registration approval, but you can begin testing adjudication. Please open a help desk ticket if your site is still receiving Network Error messages when transmitting ALL claims. Many PBMs and carriers are still working on switching off of Change Healthcare so you may still get some rejections for certain insurance plans when adjudicating.
Current estimations is that the outage could last several weeks so practices should be making plans to compensate with other services or networks. Please reach out if you need assistance with a service that is currently still unavailable due to the outage.
Change Healthcare has not provided an updated ETA for system restoration. MDScripts support team is currently evaluating all sites that were registered to transmit claims via the Change Healthcare switch and will be working on switching them over to the Relay Health network. This may allow some claims to be transmitted. PBMs and carriers who reside on the Change Healthcare network will still be unreachable until they can migrate as well. Please send a support request to support@mdscripts.com if you would like your site prioritized for migration.
MDScripts has confirmed with our hosting and technology vendors that the ConnectWise vulnerability that may have contributed to the Change Healthcare outage does not affect our infrastructure and systems.
At this time the Change Healthcare systems are still offline affecting a large number of insurance carriers and PBMS as well as a large number of pharmacies who use Change Healthcare systems for receiving e-prescriptions. There is still no ETA on when systems will be restored, but you can keep checking the status of the outage using the links posted below in this article.
Change Healthcare and Relay Health are the only 2 NCPDP switches in the country. MDScripts can transmit claims on both switches and can switch sites between the switches as needed. If your site transmits claims and is getting rejections on all transmissions we can try switching your site to transmit on Relay Health network. This may not result in accepted claims, because the insurance carrier or PBM you are transmitting to may reside on the Change Healthcare network.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/2...
No additional information has been released from Change Healthcare other than an SEC Filing that indicates a threat actor gained access to several Change Healthcare systems prompting the shutdown to prevent further damage and access. The latest statement from Change Healthcare regarding a resolution time is: "The Company is working diligently to restore those systems and resume normal operations as soon as possible, but cannot estimate the duration or extent of the disruption at this time."
MDScripts is working with individual organizations that may be affected to try and find workarounds for processing claims and transmitting e-prescriptions to affected third-party pharmacies. On Thursday, Surescripts released pharmacies using Change Healthcare's e-prescribing systems from the message queue service so that held prescriptions would go out via Fax services. Note that controlled prescriptions cannot be faxed so users may see a warning in MDScripts if attempting to transmit a controlled e-prescription to an affected pharmacy. The full Statement from Surescripts is below:
Change Healthcare?s E-Prescribing service is currently experiencing a disruption due to a cyber security incident. Until the issue is resolved, prescribers may receive errors when sending NewRx and RefRes messages. Surescripts will continue to attempt to transmit E-Prescribing messages electronically and automatically default to fax if needed. All successfully transmitted electronic and faxed messages will return a confirmation or error notification. Controlled substance prescriptions cannot be faxed and will result in an error message.
Links to Optum System Status Monitoring: https://status.changehealthcare.com/
Link to Incident Management Tracking: https://status.changehealthcare.com/incidents/hqpjz25fn3n7
MDScripts Support Staff will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates via this Help Article.
Please note, all claims that have been affected will need to be re-transmitted once services are restored.