Change Health fails to fulfill software connection date promises

Health care providers across the country are asking a federal judge in Tennessee to set a date to require a leading health insurance claims processing network, Change Health, to restore access to their software programs after defendants failed to meet the date they initially promised following a crippling cyberattack last month.

In one of the first class action suits filed on behalf of a health care provider, Sara Lemke, a licensed therapist who owns Revival Therapy in Crystal Lake, Illinois, sued Change Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group, and Optum, seeking to hold them accountable after last month’s cyberattack that left providers across the country disconnected from technology services.

This week, plaintiffs’ counsel with DannLaw in Tennessee and Ohio and the Zimmerman Law Offices in Chicago filed a motion to add additional providers to the complaint, and also asked the court for an emergency preliminary injunction as those in the health care industry face operational challenges and lost streams of income.

The plaintiffs requested that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee order the defendants to restore the plaintiffs’ access to TherapyNotes, or a similar program, by a certain date and/or develop an alternative way in which the plaintiffs can submit their health insurance claims and be paid in a timely manner.

At the time the class action lawsuit was filed, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Thomas A. Zimmerman Jr., told Law.com that several health care providers had contacted them. Because the cyberattack left many providers across the country disconnected from technology services, they were unable to verify benefits, send in claims, submit prior authorizations, or be paid for their work, he explained.

“Despite repeated promises to restore access to their computer network in a timely manner, Defendants’ computer network remains offline,” the plaintiffs’ memorandum supporting the preliminary injunction said, noting the defendants said that “‘electronic payment functionality will be available for connection beginning March 15,’” and that they would “‘reestablish connectivity to [their] claims network and software on March 18, restoring service through the week.’”

Those promises have not been met, the plaintiffs claim.

The plaintiffs’ inability to submit electronic health insurance claims, or receive payments for them, “has, and will continue to, harm health care providers and pharmacies,” as well as the patients, the plaintiffs said in the motion.

Related: Hospitals, providers still scrambling to get paid after Change Healthcare cyberattack

“Although some Plaintiffs were able to avoid financial ruin in the short-term, these sources of ‘stopgap’ funding have now been depleted, and some Plaintiffs are on the brink of going out of business. … Thus, any further delay in restoring access to Defendants’ computer network will permanently destroy the businesses that some Plaintiffs and class members spent years building,” the plaintiffs’ motion said.

Plaintiffs’ counsel also sought leave to file a second amended complaint to add eight additional providers as plaintiff.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Eli J. Richardson, who has yet to rule on the plaintiffs’ motion or set a date for the preliminary injunction hearing.