Independent pediatricians who can’t bill patients during Lurie Children’s outage can apply for loans

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Independent community pediatricians struggling to bill patients during the cybersecurity outage at Lurie Children’s Hospital are being offered emergency loans to bridge the gap, WBEZ has learned.

A Lurie spokesperson confirmed that a pediatric health care network whose owners include the children’s hospital is offering loans “to support patients’ continued access to community pediatric providers,” but did not provide more details.

Lurie took down its network Jan. 31 after a criminal threat. Email and the majority of phone lines are back up, but the electronic medical records system and the MyChart patient portal where families message with doctors are still down.

Many independent community pediatricians and pediatric practices that are affiliated with Lurie and use its system to bill electronically haven’t been able to bill patients and insurance companies since the outage began. That means these physicians and practices might be generating little income. Lurie’s spokesperson has previously confirmed the hospital is working to help doctors bill manually, but some say that can be tedious and time consuming.

Lurie Children’s Pediatric Partners Clinically Integrated Network, which is in part owned by Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, is now offering eligible community pediatric practices short-term emergency loans. The practices can apply to receive up to $50,000 per physician.

Since Lurie went offline, community pediatricians plugged into the hospital’s network also don’t have access to their patients’ medical records. They have been asking parents for patience and are encouraging them to call in.

Lurie is nationally known for treating the sickest, most complex kids and is the biggest children’s hospital in the region, with a hospital near downtown and outpatient centers throughout the suburbs.

On its website, Child & Adolescent Health Associates near the Gold Coast tells parents the practice can provide paper prescriptions for medication and that it has another workaround while their patients’ medical histories are inaccessible. The practice has access to most vaccine records for children who were born at Prentice Women’s Hospital, which is connected via two bridges to Lurie. Prentice is part of Northwestern Medicine.

“If your child was NOT born at Prentice and you are coming in for a routine visit, please bring any vaccine records you have,” the practice said online.

A representative from Child & Adolescent Health Associates did not return a message for comment.

In some cases, doctors have told WBEZ they have been sending their young patients to other hospitals or specialists if they need urgent care. The children are showing up without access to their medical history, test results or medications they’re taking — details that help doctors make treatment decisions.

Lurie is often a go-to for community pediatricians who treat low-income patients because the medical center takes many Medicaid health insurance plans and has more specialists than other hospitals.

Lurie declined interview requests and has not said when the network could be fully restored. A recent Fitch Rating report said some systems could come online soon — but that it could take weeks before Lurie’s complex network is fully restored.