Local Monterey County nonprofit organization struggling to provide services due to Change Healthcare cyber attack

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) - A Monterey County animal-assisted therapy program hit by a recent cyber attack is struggling to provide services to people in the community.

A cyber attack has left the Equine Healing Collaborative, a non-profit that offers therapy services without a way to bill for services.

And without a way to bill and pay employees, the organziation is scrambling to try to find a way to help out their employees.

A recent cyber attack has left the Equine Healing Collaborative without a way to bill clients for services.
Change Healthcare, the billing service provider for the Equine Healing Collaborative disconnected services in response to the attack on February 21.

"We have not been able to collect revenue for the majority of our services. So roughly 85% of the individuals who come here receive mental health services through Medi-Cal," said Jennifer Fenton, who is the Executive Director of the Equine Healing Collaborative. "And so we've been given numerous workarounds to try to submit our billing which have not worked,"

Fenton says they know the group responsible for the attack.

Meanwhile, employees are currently on furlough, some volunteering their time over the last two weeks to help the program rather than go on leave.

Last year, Equline Healthcare helped over two thousand people. Many clients are comforted with the help of the horses, donkeys, and chickens on site.

"We treat veterans, first responders, children, adolescents, adults," said Fenton. "So, for example, we treat unhoused women, we treat victims of sex trafficking," said Fenton.

Staff at the Equine Healing Collaborative say they had to cancel 48 appointments and staff has had to work an additional 183 hours to try and submit claims.

Volunteers tell me it was a hard decision because of how helpful these services are.

"I know that sometimes people who struggle to talk to people about their issues will talk to the horses," said Jasmine Fenton who is a volunteer. "And the horses will just sit there and listen."

The Equine Healing Collaborative says cash reserves are running out and there are hundreds of unpaid claims equaling tens of thousands of dollars.

There may be some help soon but Jennifer says it couldn't come soon enough.

"The latest announcement from UnitedHealth Group was that they are going to start testing a new system on March 18th," said Jennifer. "So assuming that the tests all worked and that we were able to submit claims the way that we were in the past, we still would not see that funding for another two weeks until after we submitted all of those claims."

On top of using money saved, they are relying on donations from the community to continue with services.

KION reached out to Change Healthcare to see how many clients are impacted by this cyber attack and we are awaiting to hear back.