March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. government said on Friday

it has urged states to make interim payments to healthcare

providers that were hit by the cyberattack at UnitedHealth's ( UNH )

unit Change Healthcare.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) new

guidance allows states to start making interim payments

retroactively to the date when claims payment processing was

disrupted due to the cybersecurity incident, the federal agency

said.