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In February, a cyberattack on one of the nation’s largest medical billing clearinghouses left several Arkansas hospitals in dire straits.
Change Healthcare is UAMS Medical Center’s sole claims processor, and the hospital was in a cash crunch while Change’s system was offline, senior editor Mark Friedman reported. Washington Regional Health System and CARTI had to reroute their claims.
Washington Region CEO Larry Shackelford said the attack “should really wake us up to how vulnerable our systems are.”
UAMS and others are taking advantage of the opportunity to build in redundancy. We think it’s the right thing to do.
The move to redundancy can conflict with the ever-present goal of increasing efficiency. But in critical areas, it’s important to build in redundancy.
It can be unpleasant when an employee goes on vacation and it becomes clear that he or she was the only person who knew certain information or how to perform a certain task. Not to mention systems as large and important as the national medical billing system.
Redundancy is like insurance. Monthly insurance premiums are a hassle, but having this insurance in case of an emergency gives you peace of mind.
