Singing River Health System is having to change its payment processing method following a massive cyberattack at Change Healthcare.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast hospital system contracts with Change Healthcare to process payments that are mailed in by patients. Change Healthcare, under the ownership of UnitedHealth Group, was the subject of a cyber breach of the unit’s information technology network in February.
In response, Singing River Health System was notified that Change Healthcare will no longer process payments for the Gulf Coast provider or any of their other clients, effective immediately. Any payments received by Change Healthcare that have not been processed will be sent back to the patient marked return to sender.
Change Healthcare claims to process more than 15 billion billing transactions annually with one in every three patients’ records passing through its systems. To date, the company has sent more than $3.3 billion to healthcare providers impacted by the breach at no cost to the providers.
“We want to help care providers, especially smaller practices, who have been affected by this crisis,” UnitedHealth Group said.
Patients impacted by the payment alteration who have received a Singing River Health System or Singing River Gulfport statement returned to them are advised to follow new payment instructions. All future payments can be made through the system’s online portal MySingingRiver, accessible here or via MyChart.
Alternatively, patients can mail payments to Singing River Health System Financial Services at 3151 Denny Avenue Pascagoula, MS 39581, or drop them off in person.
Last fall, Singing River was hit by a cyberattack. The hospital experienced unusual activities online that caused certain internal systems to be taken offline. Patients’ social security numbers, dates of birth, medical records, and other sensitive information were compromised by bad actors.
The healthcare provider was forced to document and file everything on paper until online systems were eventually restored.
