Quick Answer
On September 1, 2026, Optum is changing how its clearinghouse connects to medical practice software, and practices that submit claims from Medisoft or Lytec through Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth. They will no longer be able to send claims after that date unless they have moved to a supported clearinghouse. CGM, the maker of Medisoft and Lytec, will not support the old Optum EDI connection going forward. The path forward is eMEDIX, and AZCOMP can migrate your practice with no gap in your claims or cash flow.
Optum EDI is also known as Change EDI, Change Healthcare EDI, and RelayHealth EDI. They are all the same service.
If you use Medisoft or Lytec to run your practice billing, September 1, 2026 is a date you need to know. A back-end technical change to the Optum clearinghouse will cut off claim submission for thousands of practices that haven’t moved to a supported clearinghouse before the deadline.
This is your complete Lytec and Medisoft eMEDIX migration guide for 2026. This guide covers everything you need to know: what is changing, whether your practice is affected, which software versions are ready, what the migration involves, and how to get through it without disrupting your cash flow.
What Is Changing on September 1, 2026?
Optum (the clearinghouse, not the insurance plan) is making a back-end technical change to how it connects with medical practice management software. Starting September 1, 2026, the existing Optum EDI connection ends between Medisoft/Lytec. This means Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth will no longer function for claims submission.
This is an Optum-side requirement. It is not a bug in your software 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 for every Medisoft and Lytec practice currently on Optum, Change, or RelayHealth is to migrate to eMEDIX.
The good news: this has been announced well in advance. You have time to plan a smooth transition. The practices that come through this cleanly are simply the ones that start early.
Optum, Change Healthcare, and RelayHealth: Are They the Same Thing?
Yes. They are three names for the same clearinghouse service, used in different eras.
RelayHealth was the original brand name. It became Change Healthcare after an acquisition and operated under that name for years. Then Optum (part of UnitedHealth Group) acquired Change Healthcare, and Optum is the name on the clearinghouse today.
You may see this service written as:
- Optum EDI
- OptumEDI (one word)
- Change EDI
- Change Healthcare EDI
- RelayHealth EDI
Whichever name appears on your clearinghouse statements, inside your software settings, or on your contract, it is the same service. The September 1, 2026 deadline and the solution are identical regardless of which name you know it by.
Who Is Affected?
Whether your connection runs through an Optum Medisoft setup or a RelayHealth Lytec clearinghouse arrangement, the deadline and the fix are identical.
The change affects any medical practice that meets all three of these conditions:
- You use Medisoft or Lytec as your practice management software.
- You submit claims through Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth.
- You are on a version of Medisoft or Lytec that has not already been updated for eMEDIX integration (more on versions below).
CGM estimates thousands of practices nationwide fall into this group. Some received direct letters from Optum. Others did not, because Optum has acknowledged they do not have a clean list of every affected practice. If you are unsure whether you use Optum, Change, or RelayHealth, check your clearinghouse statements or your claim settings inside your software for any of the names listed above.
Practice Partner users are affected in a more limited way. Claims and remittance will continue to work for Practice Partner users after September 1. However, eligibility verification will stop working through the existing connection. If you are a Practice Partner user who relies on eligibility checks, contact us to discuss your options.
What Happens If You Do Nothing?
On September 1, 2026, your ability to submit claims through Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth stops.
Your Medisoft or Lytec software itself keeps working. You can still see patients, enter charges, and run reports. What stops is the ability to transmit claims to payers through the old connection. Claims that do not transmit do not get paid, which means no new payments coming in.
The financial impact builds quietly. A practice that stops submitting claims on September 1 will not immediately feel the full effect, because there are still older claims in the pipeline that were already submitted. But within a few weeks, when those older payments dry up and nothing new is coming in, the cash flow gap becomes very real.
This is entirely avoidable. Once you migrate to eMEDIX, claims flow again, and in most cases the workflow runs better than it did before, because eMEDIX integrates with Medisoft and Lytec more deeply than the old Optum connection ever did.
Is My Version of Medisoft or Lytec Ready?
Whether you need to upgrade your software depends on which version you are currently running.
How to check your version: Open Medisoft or Lytec, click Help in the top menu, then select About Medisoft (or About Lytec). The version number is displayed there. If you are not sure where to find it, send us a screenshot and we will confirm it for you.
If you need an upgrade, you are not alone, and it is not as complicated as it may sound. Practices in this group have often not updated their software in five or more years, so there may be operating system, SQL Server, or licensing items to bring current alongside the software itself. AZCOMP will map out exactly what your upgrade path looks like before anything happens, so there are no surprises. Many practices find the September 1 deadline is the reason they finally tackle an upgrade they had been putting off.
What Is the Fix? Introducing Medisoft EDI and Lytec EDI, Powered by eMEDIX
The supported clearinghouse for Medisoft and Lytec going forward is Medisoft EDI powered by eMEDIX (for Medisoft practices) and Lytec EDI powered by eMEDIX (for Lytec practices).
eMEDIX is a medical claims clearinghouse owned by CGM, the same company that makes your software. That ownership matters: eMEDIX is not a third-party tool that happens to work with Medisoft and Lytec. It is purpose-built for them. CGM designed and maintains the integration directly, which is why it is the only clearinghouse CGM has certified as the supported path forward.
Here is what sets eMEDIX apart from the old Optum EDI connection and from other clearinghouses:
Everything Happens Inside Your Software
With most clearinghouses, your biller has to leave Medisoft or Lytec, log into a separate web application, copy data back and forth, and reconcile results manually. With eMEDIX, claims submission, electronic remittance processing, eligibility verification, claim status, and reporting all happen inside Medisoft or Lytec. No separate logins. No exporting batch files. No re-typing what is already in your system.
One Support Team for Both
It only takes one team to support both the software and the clearinghouse. When something goes wrong at the intersection between your PM software and your clearinghouse, most practices end up in the middle. They have to contact their software vendor, get an answer, then take that answer back to their clearinghouse vendor, and keep bouncing between the two until someone owns the problem. With eMEDIX from AZCOMP, one team supports both. One call, one team, one resolution.
Get Paid The First Time
Claims not only get paid the first time, but also at a higher rate. eMEDIX posts a 99% clean claims rate, which beats industry averages. That means fewer claims coming back for correction, faster average payment, and less time your billing staff spends on rejections and resubmissions.
Handle Every Claim Type
It handles every claim type, including electronic secondaries. eMEDIX supports professional, institutional, dental, workers’ compensation, and auto accident claims. It also supports electronic submission of secondary claims directly from Medisoft and Lytec. Several competing clearinghouses cannot do this with Medisoft or Lytec, which forces billers to print and mail secondaries by hand. For practices with significant secondary-payer volume, the time savings from electronic secondaries alone can be substantial.
Get Real Results
Jenny Caraway at Speech Therapy Plus in Richmond, Texas switched from Waystar to eMEDIX in early 2025. Her practice runs roughly 700 claims per month. After switching, secondary-payer payments started arriving approximately three months faster, because those claims were now going out electronically instead of by mail. She estimates her team saves around 64 hours per month on payment posting alone. All thanks to eMEDIX that works directly in and with her system.
Will My Cash Flow Be Disrupted During the Switch?
No. The migration is specifically designed to protect it.
Your existing Optum, Change, or RelayHealth connection keeps submitting claims and receiving payments until your eMEDIX enrollment is approved for each individual payer. Only once eMEDIX is fully set up for a given payer does that payer’s routing switch over. There is no gap.
You do not need all enrollments to be complete before you start using eMEDIX. Payer enrollments run in the background over several weeks, and during that window your existing connection continues handling the claims for payers that have not yet been migrated. Enrollment processing time is built into the migration model. The system handles it gracefully.
One Exception: Eligibility Cuts Over Right Away
One thing does cut over right away: eligibility verification. Eligibility uses different routing than claims and remittance, and it switches to eMEDIX immediately. This is why the Medicare eligibility enrollment form is the one item worth handling early in the process.
The honest message: there is no cash flow cliff on September 1. But the longer you wait to start, the more enrollment work compresses into a tight window right before the deadline. Starting now gives every payer enrollment room to clear comfortably.
How Does the Migration Actually Work?
From start to finish, a typical migration runs about six weeks. The bulk of that time is spent waiting for payer enrollments to be processed, not on active setup work. Your hands-on time is roughly one two-hour session. Here is the path:
Step 1: AZCOMP sets up your eMEDIX account.
Once you sign up, we create your eMEDIX account and prepare your implementation. This takes one to two days, and we are actively working to bring it down to 24 hours.
Step 2: We schedule your implementation specialist.
You are paired with an AZCOMP implementation specialist who will handle the configuration with you. Scheduling typically happens within the first week.
Step 3: Your implementation session.
In a single session of about two hours, we configure Medisoft or Lytec, set up your eMEDIX connection in Revenue Management, and walk your staff through the new workflows. After this session, you can begin submitting claims to commercial payers that do not require their own enrollment.
Step 4: Payer enrollments process in the background.
This is the part that takes several weeks, and it is largely waiting rather than working. AZCOMP coordinates the enrollment process with you. We provide the forms, walk you through what each one needs, remind you when items are pending, and stay engaged through approval. Some enrollments require you to sign personally or create your own login on a payer website, because those credentials must be in your name. But you are not left to figure it out alone.
Step 5: You go fully live.
As each payer’s enrollment is approved, that payer switches to eMEDIX. Your existing connection continues handling the remaining payers until they clear. When the last enrollment is approved, you are fully migrated.
One note worth flagging: a recently introduced CMS requirement means every provider NPI must have a current attestation document on file to submit claims, eligibility, or remittance through Medicare. The form is straightforward and available through CGM’s Easy Enroll tool. AZCOMP will walk you through it during your migration. Because Medicare claims will not process without it, this is one of the few items worth handling early.
Why Trust AZCOMP With This Migration?
AZCOMP has been named CGM’s number 1 reseller in the United States for 21 consecutive years. That recognition is awarded by CGM, the maker of your software, based on sales, customer retention, and service quality. It is not a title we gave ourselves.
More to the point for the September 2026 deadline: we have done this before, under considerably harder conditions.
When Change Healthcare went down in the 2024 cybersecurity outage, practices lost their clearinghouse overnight with no warning and no lead time. AZCOMP ran that Change Healthcare Medisoft migration at scale, moving 220 practices and billing companies to eMEDIX in about four months, during a genuine emergency. The September 1, 2026 cutover is the same kind of migration, except this one has been announced months in advance. If we could move 220 practices in four months under emergency conditions, a transition that everyone can see coming is well within our capacity.
That experience is the whole point. We are not figuring out the Optum-to-eMEDIX migration path for the first time on your account. We have run it at scale, we know where the friction is, and we have built our process around protecting your cash flow while it happens.
A few more data points:
- 555 active eMEDIX client businesses that we support right now: running enrollments, training staff, and handling support tickets. This is a live footprint, not a historical claim.
- 4.9 stars on Google, with more than 620 five-star reviews.
- Serving independent practices nationwide since 2000.
“We didn’t even have to do a whole lot. AZCOMP just took over to take care of all those system setups. The transition was actually really, really smooth.”
– Jenny Caraway, Speech Therapy Plus
Frequently Asked Questions
What is happening with Optum EDI on September 1, 2026?
On September 1, 2026, Optum is making a back-end technical change to how its clearinghouse connects to medical practice software. Practices submitting claims through Optum, Change Healthcare, or RelayHealth from Medisoft or Lytec will not be able to submit claims after that date unless they have migrated to a supported clearinghouse. CGM, the company that makes Medisoft and Lytec, will not support the old Optum EDI connection going forward. The path forward is to migrate to eMEDIX.
Are Optum, Change Healthcare, and RelayHealth the same thing?
Yes. They are all the same clearinghouse service under different names from different eras. RelayHealth was the original brand, which became Change Healthcare, which was later acquired by Optum (part of UnitedHealth Group). If your practice uses any of these names for its clearinghouse, you are affected by the September 1, 2026 deadline.
Will my Medisoft or Lytec stop working entirely on September 1?
No. Medisoft and Lytec will continue to work normally. You can still see patients, enter charges, and run reports. What stops is the ability to send claims through Optum, Change, or RelayHealth from inside your software. Once you migrate to eMEDIX, your software returns to full functionality, and in many cases works better than before, because eMEDIX integrates with Medisoft and Lytec more deeply than the old connection did.
Is the September 1, 2026 Optum EDI Connection deadline firm, or could it move?
CGM has confirmed September 1, 2026 as the cutover date and has communicated to Optum that it will not support the old connection after that point. Exact dates can vary slightly depending on whether your contract is labeled Optum, Change, or Relay, but practices should treat September 1 as the firm deadline. Waiting for a hypothetical extension is not a safe strategy.
Do I need to upgrade my Medisoft/Lytec software to use eMEDIX?
It depends on your version. If you are on Medisoft 25 or higher, or Lytec 2021 or higher, your software is already set up to integrate with eMEDIX and no upgrade is needed. If you are on Medisoft 24 or Lytec 2020 or earlier, you will need to upgrade to a current version as part of your migration. Not sure which version you have? Open your software, click Help, then About Medisoft or About Lytec.
How long does it take to switch to eMEDIX?
The end-to-end migration averages about six weeks, but most of that time is spent waiting for payer enrollments to process, not on active setup work. Your hands-on time is roughly one two-hour implementation session, after which you can begin submitting claims to commercial payers that do not require their own enrollment. You do not have to wait until every enrollment is complete to start using eMEDIX.
Will my cash flow be disrupted during the transition?
No. The migration is designed specifically to protect your cash flow. Your existing Optum, Change, or RelayHealth connection keeps submitting claims and receiving payments until your eMEDIX enrollment is approved for each payer. Only when eMEDIX is fully ready for a given payer does the routing switch, so there is no gap in claims or remittance.
What if my enrollments to eMEDIX are not complete by September 1?
Your claims will still submit. For any payer whose eMEDIX enrollment is not yet approved, claims continue routing through your existing connection during the transition window. The migration model assumes enrollments take weeks for some payers and handles that gracefully. That said, the longer you wait to start, the more enrollment work compresses into a tight window before the deadline.
What if September 1 passes and I have not migrated yet?
Your claims will stop submitting through Optum, Change, or RelayHealth, and your practice will start accumulating unbilled days. The financial impact compounds quickly. AZCOMP will still help practices that come to us after September 1, but timing matters because every additional week of delay is another week of cash flow disruption. The right move is to start now, while you still have lead time.
Can I switch to a different clearinghouse instead of eMEDIX?
Technically yes. But CGM has certified eMEDIX as the clearinghouse purpose-built for Medisoft and Lytec, and other clearinghouses do not have the same depth of integration. You would be trading one stand-alone clearinghouse for another and missing the time-saving tools that come from a natively integrated workflow. When something breaks between your software and a third-party clearinghouse, you become the person in the middle sorting it out between two separate vendors. With eMEDIX from AZCOMP, one team supports both.
Ready to Get Ahead of the Deadline?
The practices that come through September 1 without disruption are the ones that start the process now, while there is room to let enrollments clear comfortably. A short consult is the easiest first step, Schedule My Migration Consult.
We will confirm which software and version you are on, tell you exactly what your path to eMEDIX looks like, and answer any questions. No obligation and no pressure.
For more detail on any of these topics, see our full Optum EDI 2026 hub page.
Last updated: June 3, 2026
