Quick Answer
Change Healthcare, RelayHealth, and Optum EDI are all the same clearinghouse service, operating under different names from different eras. If your Medisoft or Lytec practice submits claims through any of these names, the September 1, 2026 deadline applies to you equally, and the fix is identical regardless of which name appears on your account. The path forward for every affected practice is to migrate to eMEDIX before September 1st.
Optum EDI is also known as Change EDI, Change Healthcare EDI, and RelayHealth EDI. They are all the same service.
If you have been trying to sort out the difference between Change Healthcare, RelayHealth, and Optum EDI, you are not alone, and the answer is simpler than you might expect: there is no difference. They are one service, one clearinghouse, and one September 1, 2026 deadline. This post explains how one company ended up with three names, why it matters for your Medisoft or Lytec practice, and what you need to do before the cutover date regardless of which name is on your account.
Three Names, One Service
The clearinghouse most Medisoft and Lytec practices have used for years has gone by several names depending on when you started using it and which acquisition it had been through most recently.
RelayHealth was the original brand. It was one of the earlier electronic claims clearinghouses in the industry and operated under that name for years before being acquired and folded into a larger organization.
Change Healthcare is the name it operated under after that acquisition, and for most practices this is the name that sticks. Change Healthcare became one of the largest clearinghouses in the country and the name that appeared on contracts, statements, and inside practice management software for a long time.
Optum acquired Change Healthcare and is the name on the clearinghouse today. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group, and the acquisition made Optum one of the dominant players in healthcare data and clearinghouse services.
The practical result of all this: OptumEDI, Change Healthcare, and the same service are what you will find no matter which name you look up. The product changed hands and changed names, but the underlying service your practice has been connecting to is the same one throughout.
You may see it written as any of these:
- Optum EDI
- OptumEDI (one word)
- Change EDI
- Change Healthcare EDI
- RelayHealth EDI
All of them point to the same clearinghouse. All of them are subject to the same September 1, 2026 deadline.
Why Does This Confusion Matter for Your Practice?
Because practices received notices under different names, and some did not receive a notice at all.
When Optum began communicating about the September 1, 2026 connection change, some practices got a direct letter from Optum. Others got something referencing Change Healthcare. Others got nothing, because Optum has acknowledged that they do not have a clean list of every affected practice. If you submitted claims through this clearinghouse under any name and never got a letter, that does not mean you are not affected. It means Optum lost track of you in one of their migrations.
The confusion around names has also led some practices to believe the deadline might apply to one version of the service but not another. It does not work that way. Change Healthcare, RelayHealth, and Optum EDI are the same back-end service. The technical change Optum is making on September 1, 2026 applies to the connection itself, regardless of which name your practice knows it by.
If you are not sure which clearinghouse name is on your contract or inside your software settings, check your clearinghouse statements or open your claim settings in Medisoft or Lytec and look for any of the names listed above. If you find any of them, the deadline applies to you.
What Is Actually Changing on September 1, 2026?
Optum is updating the back-end technical requirements for how its clearinghouse connects to practice management software. The existing connection pathway that Medisoft and Lytec have used to communicate with Change Healthcare, RelayHealth, and Optum EDI will no longer function for claims submission after September 1.
This is not a bug and it is not something that will be patched. CGM, the company that makes Medisoft and Lytec, has confirmed to Optum that it will not build a new connection to support the old pathway. The supported path forward is eMEDIX, the clearinghouse purpose-built for Medisoft and Lytec.
Your software itself will keep working after September 1. You can still see patients, enter charges, and run reports. What stops is the ability to transmit claims to payers through the old connection. For most practices, even a short gap in claim submission creates a real cash flow problem within a few weeks, once the claims that were already in the pipeline have cleared and nothing new is coming in.
For the complete breakdown of what changes, which versions are affected, and how the migration works, see our full guide: Optum EDI Connection Ends September 1, 2026: A Complete Guide for Medisoft and Lytec Users.
Who Is Affected, Regardless of Which Name Is on Your Account?
The answer is the same whether your account says Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth. If you use Medisoft or Lytec and submit claims through any of those names, you are affected.
For Medisoft users: if your Medisoft clearinghouse setup points to any variant of this service, the September 1, 2026 deadline applies to you. The right move is to confirm your version (Medisoft 25 or higher is ready for eMEDIX; Medisoft 24 or earlier requires an upgrade) and start your migration now. Every Medisoft clearinghouse September 2026 question we hear from practices comes down to the same answer: migrate to eMEDIX before the deadline.
For Lytec users: the situation is identical. If your Lytec practice submits claims through Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth, the cutover applies to you regardless of which name is on your contract. Lytec 2021 or higher is ready for eMEDIX; Lytec 2020 or earlier requires an upgrade as part of the migration.
Practice Partner users are affected in a more limited way. Claims and remittance will continue to work after September 1, but eligibility verification will stop. See our full hub page for Practice Partner options.
The Fix Is the Same Too: Medisoft EDI and Lytec EDI, Powered by eMEDIX
Just as the problem is the same regardless of which name is on your account, the solution is the same too.
CGM, the maker of Medisoft and Lytec, has certified one supported clearinghouse as the path forward: Medisoft EDI powered by eMEDIX for Medisoft practices, and Lytec EDI powered by eMEDIX for Lytec practices. eMEDIX is owned by CGM, built specifically for Medisoft and Lytec, and is the only clearinghouse with a native, fully integrated workflow inside both products.
For Medisoft practices, this means claims, remittance, eligibility verification, claim status, and reporting all happen inside Medisoft itself, with no separate logins or manual data entry. For Lytec practices, the experience is exactly the same inside Lytec.
A Lytec eMEDIX migration follows the same path as a Medisoft one: roughly six weeks from start to finish, with the bulk of that time spent waiting on payer enrollments rather than on active setup work. Your hands-on time is approximately one two-hour implementation session. Your cash flow is protected throughout, because your existing connection keeps submitting claims for each payer until your eMEDIX enrollment for that payer is approved.
AZCOMP has been named CGM’s number 1 reseller in the United States for 21 consecutive years and has migrated 220 practices and billing companies from Change Healthcare to eMEDIX, during the 2024 cybersecurity outage, in about four months under genuine emergency conditions. The September 1, 2026 deadline has been announced well in advance. If we could handle 220 migrations with no warning, this transition is well within reach for every practice that starts now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Optum, Change Healthcare, and RelayHealth the same clearinghouse?
Yes. They are all the same clearinghouse service operating under different names from different eras. RelayHealth was the original brand, which became Change Healthcare after an acquisition, which was later acquired by Optum (part of UnitedHealth Group). The underlying service is the same regardless of which name appears on your account.
I got a letter from Optum (or Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth). Does it apply to my Medisoft or Lytec practice?
Yes. Any letter referencing the September 1, 2026 connection change from any of these names applies to Medisoft and Lytec practices using that clearinghouse. The deadline and the fix are the same regardless of which name sent the notice.
My software settings say RelayHealth, not Optum. Am I still affected?
Yes. RelayHealth, Change Healthcare, and Optum are all the same back-end service. If your Medisoft or Lytec claim settings reference RelayHealth, you are using the same clearinghouse connection that is changing on September 1, 2026.
Is the September 1, 2026 deadline the same for all three names?
Yes, with a small caveat. CGM has confirmed September 1, 2026 as the cutover date across all three names. Exact dates can vary slightly depending on how your specific contract is labeled, but practices should treat September 1 as the firm deadline regardless of which name is on their account.
What do I do if I am not sure which clearinghouse I am using?
Check your clearinghouse statements or open your claim settings inside Medisoft or Lytec and look for any of these names: Optum, OptumEDI, Change Healthcare, Change EDI, or RelayHealth. If you find any of them, the September 1, 2026 deadline applies to you. If you are still not sure, contact us and we will check for you.
What is eMEDIX and why is it the replacement?
eMEDIX is the medical claims clearinghouse purpose-built for Medisoft and Lytec, owned by CGM, the same company that makes both products. It is the only clearinghouse with a fully native integration inside Medisoft and Lytec, meaning claims, remittance, eligibility, and reporting all happen inside the software your staff already uses every day. CGM has certified eMEDIX as the supported clearinghouse going forward and will not maintain the old Optum connection after September 1.
Ready to Sort Out Your Migration?
Whether your account says Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth, the path forward is the same: migrate to eMEDIX before September 1, 2026. A short consult with our team is the easiest first step. We will confirm which version you are on, tell you exactly what your migration looks like, and answer any questions with no obligation and no pressure.
For the complete breakdown of the change, version compatibility, and the full migration process, see our Optum EDI 2026 hub page.
Schedule My Migration Consult. Prefer to talk now? Call us at (480) 730-3055
