HHS to End Medicare Pay Program After Change Healthcare Breach

The Biden administration announced plans Monday to terminate a program that provided more than $3.2 billion in accelerated and advance Medicare payments to hospitals, physicians, and others suffering cash flow disruptions following the Change Healthcare cyberattack in February.

Medicare payments under the Accelerated and Advance Payment (AAP) Program for the Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) will end on July 12, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced.

Begun in early March, the program provided more than $2.5 billion in accelerated Medicare payments to over 4,200 hospitals. Another 4,722 CHOPD advance payments, totaling more than $717 million, went to Medicare ...