As per a press release, Utah Medicaid has instructed pharmacies to give medication out for free in the event of a cyber outage under Change Healthcare.
In response to an outage impacting pharmacy prescription data, the state program will reach more than 17,000 Medicaid members that depend on high-risk or life-sustaining treatment in what the Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) describes as an “unusual step.”
Change Healthcare, the Utah Medicaid pharmacy supplier for individuals whose prescription drugs are covered by Medicaid directly, announced on Wednesday, February 21, that they had disconnected their systems due to a cyber security issue. The release stated that this took place in an attempt to “reduce future impact.”
Since the Change Healthcare outage is predicted to last through next week, about 200 employees from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Team and the Utah Department of Workforce Services will be getting in touch with Medicaid members who are in response for a refill of high-risk medication within the next seven days, by March 2.
As per to the announcement, pharmacies have been advised by Utah Medicaid to give Medicaid enrollees a free 30-day supply of drugs.
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) stated that they will “keep going to examine the situation and member requirements” for Medicaid members whose medications are scheduled for refill between March 3 and March 9. The department added that they are “ready to make another round.”