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Information: Change Healthcare outage — payment processing has commenced

As of April 30, 2024

On Feb. 21, 2024, Change Healthcare (CHC) experienced a cyberattack that has disrupted their systems and services. The incident has led to outages in these services for payers, providers and other parts of the U.S. health care system, including GEHA. GEHA works with Change Healthcare to provide several services to our members and providers, including payment processing, explanation of benefit (EOB) distribution and mail services.

Due to the cyberattack on Change Healthcare's system, GEHA has been unable to access EOBs, or process some claims and payments to providers and members. Note, this outage does not impact your access to providers and other health benefits. The systems and processes that Change Healthcare provides GEHA continue to be down without a clear timeline for resolution. Due to this, we have been diligently working on an alternative method.

GEHA has identified and implemented an alternate method to restore provider and member payment services disrupted by the Change Healthcare outage and resume mailings of EOBs. However, migrating to a new solution takes time and thorough quality assurance to ensure no additional unintended impacts to member and provider services. To address this, our teams are implementing a phased, and measured, rollout to resume normal operations.

Payment processing has commenced utilizing the alternative method and processing steps. Payments will be issued chronologically as we work through the backlog in a measured and systematic approach.

GEHA continues to make progress in mitigating the impact to our members and care providers of this unprecedented cyberattack on the U.S. health system.

We appreciate your patience as we implement an alternative method. GEHA is working diligently to work through the backlog of claims. See below for answers to the questions we're receiving from our members and providers. We will update this page as more information becomes available.

Provider assistance


For providers who receive payments from payers that were processed by Change Healthcare, there is a temporary funding assistance support program to help with short-term cash flow. We highly encourage impacted providers to take advantage of a Temporary Funding Assistance Program offered by Optum, which owns CHC. Optum assistance is available for any providers that received payments from GEHA via CHC. The Program offers providers interest-free loans to help with short-term cash flow problems caused by the cyberattack.

Optum Temporary Funding: Optum Temporary Funding Assistance

Optum has a simple video with step-by-step instructions on how to navigate this process:
Optum Temporary Funding Assistance Program webinar


Connection Dental Providers who work with payors other than GEHA should contact those payors directly to inquire about the status of payments.


No. This outage does not impact your access to providers. There was an interruption in prescription services from Optum immediately after the outage occurred, but this has been resolved. Please continue to get needed health care services while the back-office administrative issue is being resolved.

GEHA members are unable to access Explanation of Benefits (EOBs) online. There may also be a delay in claims processing for payments to health care providers or to members who paid out-of-pocket. Some Flexible Spending Account (FSA) payments may be delayed due to the need for documentation before processing payment.

No. GEHA's internal technology and systems were not directly impacted by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare.

No action is needed from members. GEHA is working diligently to resolve this issue.

The cyberattack on Change Healthcare took place Feb. 21, 2024. The effects of this event are still impacting the broader U.S. health care industry. GEHA is working diligently to resolve this issue.

Summary:

  • This outage does not impact your access to providers and other health benefits
  • Explanation of benefits and claim related documents may be unavailable at this time due to an outage with Change Healthcare (CHC)
  • As a result, our Customer Care team may be unable to access these documents
  • We continue to monitor our vendor's progress toward reaching resolution
  • Please bookmark this page and check it for updates. Thank you for your patience.

GEHA is processing payments chronologically beginning from the last day of claims processing when the CHC cybersecurity issue took place on Feb. 21, 2024. The new processing solution will be implemented in phases, and will take time to fully work through backlogs, to ensure no additional impact to service. GEHA Customer Care associates unfortunately do not have access to upcoming payments.

GEHA is working through claims in a chronological order beginning from the last day of claims processing when the CHC cybersecurity issue took place on Feb. 21, 2024. The new processing solution will be implemented in phases. We are diligently working through the backlog.

The CHC cyberattack affected GEHA's ability to view member EOBs, and our Customer Care associates have not had access to all documents. Access to EOBs is now starting to commence via EOBs being mailed. Electronic EOBs are still unavailable. The print EOBs are being processed in chronological order beginning from the last days of claims processing when the CHC cybersecurity issue took place on Feb. 20, 2024.

To date, GEHA has no evidence that member data was compromised as a result of this incident. Additionally, GEHA is proactively monitoring the situation. The security of our members' data and personal health information is of utmost importance to us. We have proactively implemented a robust monitoring process. Our team of cybersecurity experts, combined with the scanning and monitoring tools described, are constantly assessing if our member data has been impacted.

At this time we have no evidence that GEHA member data has been compromised in this incident. UnitedHealth Group, which owns Optum and CHC, has established a dedicated website for potentially impacted individuals at changecybersupport.com. GEHA members can visit this website to get more information and details on resources that UnitedHealth Group is offering in response to this incident. UnitedHealth Group has established a dedicated call center to offer free credit monitoring and identity theft protections for two years to anyone impacted. The call center will also include trained clinicians to provide support services. UnitedHealth Group has indicated that, given the ongoing nature and complexity of the data review, the call center will not be able to provide any specifics on individual data impact at this time.

UnitedHealth Group's call center can be reached at 866.262.5342 and further details can be found on the website.

Yes. Based on the services Change Healthcare provides to GEHA, GEHA is experiencing disruptions to things like member and provider letter print and mail services, Explanation of Benefit (EOB) retrieval and payment processing for dental providers, out of network medical providers and members.

No. GEHA's internal technology and systems were not directly impacted by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare.

No. GEHA has an alternate method to restore both provider and member payment processing and access to impacted member and provider documents. GEHA will proactively communicate with providers and members on updates, including any actions providers or members should take. Please monitor this webpage for updates. The GEHA Customer Care team is unable to view documents impacted during the time frame of the outage.

GEHA has actively been working on a contingency plan to restore both provider and member payment processing and access to impacted member and provider documents. A remediation plan is now in place to resume provider e-payments. We're implementing a phased rollout to resume claims processing.

Payments are being processed in a chronological order beginning from the last day of claims processing when the CHC cybersecurity issue took place on Feb. 21, 2024. The new processing solution will be implemented in phases, and will take time to fully work through backlogs, to ensure no additional impact to service. GEHA Customer Care associates do not have access to upcoming payments.

GEHA is not paying interest per OPM and GEHA contracts. This was an industry-wide event.

Payments are being processed in chronological order beginning with the first date of impact, which was Feb. 20, 2024. We appreciate your patience as we carefully work through the backlog of outstanding claims. GEHA has the data on these claims, and no action is necessary to resubmit them.

We have our normal provider dispute process where you can write in to appeal a claim. Currently the time frame for claims dispute is six months from the original date of the claim. Claim disputes must be received in writing.

If nothing has changed on your end, we do not need updated info. Please see your Provider Portal for contact information if you need to enroll or update your VCC/ACH payment information to our payment processing system.

GEHA commenced EOB processing and payments on out-of-network provider claims to members on April 29, 2024. Payments and EOBs are being processed by an alternate method in chronological order from the date services were impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack on Feb. 21, 2024.

Payments facilitated by UnitedHealthcare to providers in the UnitedHealthcare medical networks are not impacted by this incident. However, GEHA is not currently able to facilitate payments to providers within the Aetna network, to out-of-network providers, or related to claim adjustments to in-network UnitedHealthcare network providers. All dental network payments and payments to reimburse members are also impacted at this time.

If the claim is submitted to GEHA or one of GEHA's partners (such as UHC or Aetna) using a clearinghouse other than CHC, GEHA can accept and process the claim as normal. However, GEHA is processing claims in chronological order as described in the FAQ immediately above.

Connection Dental Providers who work with payors other than GEHA should contact those payors directly to inquire about the status of payments. Additional information, if provided, can be found on the payor tab at connectiondental.com.

United Health Group has also provided access to the following information and resources:

UHG Cyber Event Information: Information on the Change Healthcare Cyber Response — UnitedHealth Group

Specifically, for providers who receive payments from payers that were processed by Change Healthcare, there is a temporary funding assistance support program to help with short-term cash flow needs.

Optum Temporary Funding: Optum Temporary Funding Assistance