A recent cyber attack on the Change Healthcare clearinghouse has brought to light the obvious vulnerability of centralized healthcare payment systems. Change Healthcare handles a sizable portion of the medical claims processed in the US, so the outage had a widespread impact on patients, pharmacists, and healthcare providers.
Understanding how clearinghouses act as intermediaries between providers and payers in the healthcare payment ecosystem is essential. Redundancy in payer gateway connections is necessary to lower the probability of future disruptions of this kind. This means communicating with many clearinghouses built on modern, scalable platforms.
Healthcare systems protect the continuity of vital activities by strengthening their resilience against possible disturbances like blackouts or cyberattacks by establishing scattered clearinghouse connections. Leading clearinghouses like as Change Healthcare, Availity, Waystar, Experian Health, and many more have formed strategic alliances with Orbit Healthcare, which is leading this effort. These partnerships provide a networked infrastructure that increases redundancy and diversifies risk, guaranteeing that essential healthcare services continue to be available and functional even in the face of difficult situations.
In the current environment, backup preparations are crucial because ransomware and hacking present serious risks. In order to prevent delays and financial hazards, it is a proactive move to implement redundant systems for processing healthcare payments. Healthcare companies can handle change with assurance, resiliency, and agility when they have a strong infrastructure and decentralized communications.
Source: Orbit Healthcare
