Change Healthcare Cyber Attack

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today I come to the floor with good news. HHS and CMS has heeded my call from last Friday to provide hospitals and providers immediate relief in the aftermath of the devastating cyber attack asking for ransom. The announcement by CMS today will get cash flowing to providers while our healthcare system works to get fully back online after this attack.

It is an extremely encouraging first step, but the systems of many of the providers are complicated and they are varied, so I urge CMS to be persistent and patient as they work to get all the providers on board; and I will work with CMS to make sure that happens.

As you know, across New York and across America, tens of thousands of hospitals, pharmacies, doctors' offices, and other healthcare providers are still reeling from one of the worst cyber attacks ever launched on our healthcare system.

The February 21 attack against Change Healthcare, which is responsible for processing billions of insurance and payment claims annually for healthcare providers, has thrown providers, including hospitals and pharmacies, into a crisis. For nearly 2 weeks, they have been unable to submit medical claims; and many providers are facing imminent insolvency as cash reserves are drying up.

Yesterday, I was in Ithaca and met with Rome Health and Cayuga Health who told me they are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars every single day with stacks of claims nearly two feet high that they can't file.

Americans, meanwhile, are struggling to refill prescriptions, having their care delayed or denied and are unable to use patient assistance programs they need to stay healthy. Our hospitals, particularly our smaller ones without a cushion of cash reserve, could have ended up laying off people and not providing services had CMS not stepped up to the plate. I am so glad they did.

Probably even worse, our small pharmacies who have no financial cushion could have ended up shutting down and would have told millions of patients, millions of customers that they can't provide the medicines these customers need because they were not getting reimbursed.

This was a crisis, so last Friday, I called upon HHS and CMS to use their authority to accelerate payments to our hospitals and impacted providers. Hospitals and providers need help from the Federal Government so they can focus on their main mission as much as possible, which is providing care for their patients. I warned that the longer this crisis persists, the harder it will be for hospitals and other providers to stay open.

Today, I am pleased to see that HHS and CMS are heeding my call. This is a huge shot in the arm and will provide immediate relief to hospitals and providers, just like we saw during COVID. CMS had the ability to do this; and during COVID, when providers also were not being reimbursed, they filled the void. And I am glad they are doing it again.

What CMS has done is an encouraging first step, but the work cannot stop until every affected provider has the financial stability to weather this storm. We need CMS to cut through the redtape to make sure these advanced payments are done right. The systems of the different providers are varied. Some are very complicated. We need CMS to be both persistent and flexible.

And, of course, we have asked the FBI and other Justice Department Agencies to find out who these awful perpetrators of this ransomware were to put them out of business and see if they can seek punishment, depending on the country that these providers came from.

I thank the administration for its swift action, and I encourage it to do more. I will work daily with the administration and providers alike until the situation is resolved.

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