FAH President and CEO Chip Kahn released the following statement in response to UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty’s testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday:

“No matter what is said today in front of lawmakers about the Change Healthcare cyberattack, the fact is most insurers failed to meet the moment to adequately help patients and their caregivers through the devastating crisis.

“Hospitals and physicians never stopped caring for their patients and are now buried under a mountain of denials, delays, and even debt. In contrast to CMS, which acted within its authority to ease the burden on patients and providers, this crisis showed that we can’t wait for plans to act in the public interest. We urge Congress to use today’s hearings to hold insurers accountable, make sure premium dollars are spent on patient care, and support caregivers as they meet the added expense and work through paperwork and new IT burdens resulting from this cyberattack.”

FAH has submitted a statement for the record outlining the crisis’s real-world impact on patients and caregivers and the specific steps federal policymakers could institute to help providers deal with its aftermath and any future threats.

The full statement can be found here.

For more information on cybersecurity threats in health care, FAH released a new Hospitals in Focus podcast episode today entitled “The Anatomy of a Cyberattack: Hospitals Respond to Growing Threat from Hackers.”

In this episode, Lynn Sessions, a partner at BakerHostetler, talks with Chip Kahn about the cybersecurity issues facing hospitals and health care organizations – from evolving threats to how we need to think about mitigation and resiliency. –> Listen here.