Community health centers and organizations that primarily serve low-income people are being disproportionately hurt by the biggest hack in health care history, which has disrupted payments for thousands of health care providers for a month now.
The hack, which crippled Change Healthcare, the clearinghouse for 30 percent of medical claims in the United States, has forced providers to find alternative funding sources to stay afloat. For large providers, like many health care systems, that comes in the form of reserves set aside for emergencies.
But for smaller providers, like many community health centers, that can mean taking out lines of credit, which can come with large interest rates, missing payments to vendors and seeking a hodgepodge of support from insurers that are willing to front payments.
