OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R – NY21) says North Star Health Alliance is still owed Medicaid money by New York State after a 2024 cyberattack and wants U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to get involved to find out if Albany is mismanaging the federal money it gets to run Medicaid on a state level.<\/p>\n
The cyberattack, one of the largest healthcare breaches ever, hit United Healthcare\u2019s subsidiary Change Healthcare on February 21, 2024, crippling payments to providers.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the U.S. Justice Department, Stefanik says the state pays out Medicaid claims once they are processed by a Medicaid managed care plan but any interruption in claim submissions can result in loss revenue for hospitals. <\/p>\n
Shortly after the cyberattack, Stefanik says Washington gave states the ok to still make payments to Medicaid providers because the attack created significant claims-processing outages.<\/p>\n
Stefanik argues there\u2019s no plan in place for hospitals to be able to recover the loss revenue in a situation like this and believes there\u2019s no public evidence that the state directed payments to happen retroactively.<\/p>\n
Stefanik is asking the Department of Justice to find out how much this affected North Star Health Alliance and if the state has tried to resolve it saying, \u201cInvestigating these questions in detail should reveal the amount owed to North Star Health Alliance by the state that has potentially not been paid and potential greater structural issues within the New York State Department of Health around management of federal funds that need to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stefanik says, \u201cIn order to prevent a regional healthcare collapse, I respectfully request the federal government to intervene and require the state to pay what is owed to North Star\u2019s hospitals. I further request that the Department of Justice launch an investigation into potential mismanagement of federal Medicaid funds by the NYS government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday, the state called the claims baseless and that it is not withholding Medicaid money from hospitals. The Governor Office\u2019s full statement is later in this story.<\/p>\n