Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Applauding CMS For Heeding His Call To Expand Relief To Impacted Healthcare Providers Following Nationwide Healthcare Cyberattack

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expanding immediate relief to Medicare Part B providers who were impacted by the healthcare cyberattack last month. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

After last month’s devastating, unprecedented cyberattack on tens of thousands of hospitals, pharmacies, and doctor’s offices in New York and across America, I am proud that last week HHS and CMS heeded my call to provide healthcare providers immediate relief to help get their systems back up to speed.

This weekend, we received more good news: CMS expanded its response to the cyberattack to include Medicare Part B providers. This new action by CMS will directly help our doctors on the frontline of this crisis continue to stay open and provide care for their patients. Because of the cyberattack, people weren’t getting the dollars that they had to expend to do their jobs.

I commend CMS for continuing to heed my call for an all hands on deck approach to this crisis. For over three weeks now, providers – including hospitals, doctors, pharmacies big and small – have all been unable to submit medical claims as a result of this cyberattack, leaving many facing imminent insolvency.

I met with Rome Health in Rome, New York, Cayuga Health in Ithaca, who told me they’re losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, and have stacks of claims nearly two feet high that they’re unable to file.

The American people are feeling the pain of this cyberattack too. Many are struggling to refill prescriptions, some are having their care delayed or denied, and others are unable to use patient assistance programs they rely on.

Had CMS not stepped up to the plate, hospitals and pharmacies – especially the smaller ones that don’t have large cash reserves – faced the risk of laying people off, or even shutting down entirely because they were not being reimbursed.

So, this new action by CMS to expand its response and include Medicare Part B providers in relief efforts is an encouraging step, but this crisis is far from over.

I will continue working with the Administration, my colleagues in Congress, CMS – I talked to the administrator just a few hours ago – and others in the healthcare industry to get providers the relief they need and to protect our healthcare system from future attacks.

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