NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) -

The U.S. government said on Tuesday Medicare providers can turn to their local administrative contractors to resolve claims payment delays stemming from a hack at UnitedHealth's technology unit Change Healthcare.

The statement comes after numerous hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and other stakeholders highlighted potential cash flow concerns caused by an inability to submit claims and receive payments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has contacted all contractors that administer certain Medicare claims to accept paper submissions if a provider needs to file claims in that method, for individual consideration.

CMS also encouraged Medicare Advantage plans to offer advance funding to providers most affected by the hack at Change.

American Hospital Association (AHA) CEO Richard Pollack wrote in a letter sent on Monday that a temporary assistance program put in place by UnitedHealth last week was "not even a band-aid" on the payment problems caused by the hack, and called the terms of the program "shockingly onerous".

UnitedHealth did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the letter from AHA.

The Change hack was perpetrated by hackers who identified themselves as the "Blackcat" ransomware group.

Change said last week it had enabled a new version of its ePrescribing service for all its customers, more than a week after it reported a hack that had a knock-on effect on players across the U.S. healthcare system. Parent company UnitedHealth had announced a program to provide short-term funding for providers unable to receive payment because of the hack.

"We need real solutions — not programs that sound good when they are announced but are fundamentally inadequate when you read the fine print," Pollack wrote in the letter to UnitedHealth Chief Operating Officer Dirk McMahon.

The CMS asked private companies that provide insurance to older adults through Medicare Advantage plans to remove or relax prior authorization procedures during the system outages. It also urged government-supported children's insurance and companies that provide Medicaid plans for low-income people to do the same.

The AHA also wrote to congressional leaders on Monday to request assistance for hospitals grappling with hack-related issues. (Reporting by Michael Erman and Pratik Jain; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Devika Syamnath)