Weeks following the nationwide outage of Change Healthcare, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, LLC (FCS) has been able to establish new systems to begin processing claims for prescriptions and medical oncology treatment. With more than $300 million spent each month on medications, Florida’s largest community oncology practice has leveraged existing partnerships to quickly stand-up viable solutions to maintain patient care.
Days after learning of the cyberattack on Change Healthcare and its subsequent shutdown, FCS recognized the urgent need for an innovative solution to address the crisis. FCS Chief Executive Officer Nathan H. Walcker remarked, “The stakes are undeniably high. A financial crisis is looming, one greater than we have ever encountered, and we cannot sit idle waiting for a resolution. For this reason, we have been forced to take matters into our own hands with no other working solution being presented.”
In January, FCS announced the founding of its management services organization, Core Ventures, which houses its ancillary and central services, including its finance, IT, managed care, and procurement divisions. This platform has been critical as FCS has worked to restore functionality to insurance and claims processing. Through this unified model, FCS has leveraged national and local relationships to provide the platform for community oncology to be heard.
Steadfast in their efforts and pooling all resources, FCS and Core Ventures have been able to work directly with national industry partners and drive relationships in order to quickly provide workable solutions that meet the specific demands of the community oncology practice. Their teams have reached out to payers who require enrollment, advocating for expedited turn-around-times and relaxed enrollment requirements.
FCS and Core Ventures moved quickly to take advantage of new medical claims pathways activated by Unlimited Systems, its revenue cycle platform, in response to the Change Healthcare disruption. “FCS senior leadership proved well positioned to take advantage of their executive contacts and shared market presence to partner with us to escalate the priority of oncology with Availity, an established EDI gateway that Unlimited connects to for claims and remittance exchange,” remarked Brian Gockerman, Unlimited Systems CEO. “As a result of swift, collaborative action, FCS and Core Ventures accelerated delivery of the full-scale Availity pathway for the benefit of specialty healthcare providers across the country who rely on our practice management application to drive reimbursement.”
“We are fortunate in that we have the scalability and leveraging power to negotiate new relationships and services under this intense pressure and in a condensed timeframe,” says FCS President & Managing Physician Lucio N. Gordan, MD. “Smaller community oncology providers don’t typically have the luxury of these types of resources to conduct such an undertaking.”
FCS remains committed to ensuring that US oncology practices, large and small, may continue delivering care in a community oncology setting. Furthermore, FCS is resolute in dedicating the time and resources to this endeavor to ensure a clear path to a solution.
For over 40 years, FCS has been at the forefront of community oncology, providing advanced treatments and conducting research on novel therapies. A true visionary in the oncology space, FCS continues to stand out and ahead of community oncology practices, especially during times of crisis, seeking sustainable solutions to enhance the value of the care being provided.
Additional coverage of how the Change Healthcare cyberattack is impacting FCS and the medical community has been covered in nationwide and local news outlets, including the New York Times and NBC News:
Cyberattack Paralyzes the Largest U.S. Health Care Payment System
Patients struggle to get lifesaving medication after cyberattack on a major health care company
