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Regarding the March 9 letter, “The risk of relying on technology”:
The Post’s protection of the Change Healthcare hack illustrates how the fragility of our health-care billing methods can have wide-ranging results and fallout. Payment reform won’t be a glamorous subject, missing, because it does, the urgency of particular person affected person tales, however cost processing is an important perform, with out which well being care and lots of different industries can’t perform. The information articles understandably give attention to how the ransomware assault is affecting the suppliers most delicate to the each day functioning of billing methods: hospitals and pharmacies, the place thousands and thousands of transactions have to be settled each day and in actual time.
Community of Hope makes use of Change Healthcare to submit all our health-care claims, which signify greater than half of our finances and common $420,000 every week. We are using reserves proper now, however the longer this goes on, the extra uncertainty we have now about sustaining our companies with out some assist. The D.C. Primary Care Association is advocating up-front funds from our payers as a result of some well being facilities have needed to entry traces of credit score, delay funds and even take into account furloughs. I’m not satisfied it’ll finish anytime quickly. Even when methods are restored, it’ll take lots of time and value to atone for submitting claims and reconciling funds.
In addition to asking the arduous cybersecurity questions, Congress and federal health-care leaders should take into account whether or not international funds for holistic affected person care, as a substitute of a system rooted in particular person claims for every service and prescription, can cut back our vulnerability to community disruptions. Community well being facilities serve 31.5 million individuals nationwide and save the well being system $24 billion yearly. Isn’t it time to spend money on the fashions that assist them?
Kelly Sweeney McShane, Washington
The writer is president and chief govt of Community of Hope.
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