Coronavirus Will Have Long-Lasting Impacts on the U.S. Health Care System—And the Poorest Will Suffer Most

The worsening coronavirus epidemic in the U.S. has upended the country’s medical system. It has led to system-wide disruptions that physicians say are necessary for combatting the immediate, un-ignorable threat of COVID-19—but that may, by default, force patients who do not have coronavirus to shoulder a heavy burden. Those with chronic conditions will have to fight harder to get the care they need, not only now but also after the outbreak ends, when hospitals are left to deal with backlogs from appointments canceled en masse. Anyone with the misfortune to get into a car accident or have a heart attack during the outbreak will be at the mercy of a strained system. And in this environment, the gulf between people who can and cannot afford to spend the time and money to seek out good care will become ever-more apparent.

The full TIME article can be viewed at this link.  

Shuttered Hospitals Re-Opening Across U.S. For Coronavirus Cases

Hospitals that only recently were closed after struggling financially are now being re-opened by state and local governments to treat the sickest of patients stricken by the Coronavirus strain COVID-19.

In the south Chicago suburb of Blue Island, Ill., for example, a hospital with more than 300 beds may re-open to treat Coronavirus patients, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday. And in California, the Orange County Board of Supervisors said this week the state is looking at re-opening the former 73-bed Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in San Clemente while 158-bed Community Hospital in Long Beach is preparing to re-open after being closed just two years ago, according to media reports.

“We have just shy of 75,000 licensed beds,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said earlier this week of the state’s hospitals. “We need an additional 50,000 beds in our system.”

The full Forbes article can be viewed at this link.  

CVS To Waive Co-Pays For Aetna Member Coronavirus Hospitalizations

CVS Health said it will waive co-payments and related out-of-pocket cost-sharing of commercially insured Aetna members’ inpatient admissions related to the Coronavirus strain COVID-19.

The move is among the more significant thus far among health insurance companies that are expanding coverage and eliminating plan member cost-sharing for everything from doctor office visits for Coronavirus tests to telehealth consultations for screening of the disease.

The full Forbes article can be viewed at this link.  

How wearable robots are helping people with paralysis walk again

Wearable robots are helping people with paralysis walk again.

Over the last few years, there have been major developments in this field, giving hope to people with spinal cord injuries, neurological disorders and strokes. The use of these devices during rehab is growing and their benefits becoming more widely recognized. 

The full CNBC article can be viewed at this link.  

Washington, DC – March 23, 2020 – Today, eHealth Initiative (eHI) sent a letter to Congress, signed by 21 leading digital health and health IT organizations, outlining support for certain provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, as well as additional steps to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Digital health, telehealth, and remote monitoring technology can help providers effectively triage and treat COVID-19 patients,” says Jennifer Covich Bordenick, Chief Executive Officer of eHI. “There is an urgent need to remove regulations and help providers scale this technology quickly.”

The letter outlines support for telehealth provisions, including increased funding, as well as provisions related to the sharing of patient health information. It asks Congress to take additional steps to support telehealth, remote patient monitoring, expand broadband for rural areas, advance patient matching, fund artificial intelligence use and testing, and provide regulatory relief for providers and hospitals.

CVS Melds Opioid Support Into Social Determinants Network

CVS Health is melding a program designed to help those who’ve suffered an opioid overdose into its widening effort to address social determinants of health.

The effort by CVS Health and its Aetna health insurance unit comes as insurers roll out strategies to move into their communities and beyond the doctor’s office to reduce costs and improve outcomes.

The full Forbes article can be viewed at this link.  

Coronavirus is exposing all of the weaknesses in the US health system

The international response to the novel coronavirus has laid this bare: America was less prepared for a pandemic than countries with universal health systems.

There is a real concern that Americans, with a high uninsured rate and high out-of-pocket costs compared to the rest of the world, won’t seek care because of the costs. Before the crisis even began, the United States had fewer doctors and fewer hospital beds per capita than most other developed countries. The rollout of COVID-19 testing has been patchy, reliant on a mix of government and private labs to scale up the capacity to perform the tens of thousands of tests that will be necessary.

“Everyone working in this space would agree that no matter how you measure it, the US is far behind on this,” says Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The full Vox article can be viewed at this link.  

Fauci: Time for America to ‘hunker down’

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert urged Americans on Sunday to hunker down as the U.S. scrambles to avoid an explosion of COVID-19 cases that could kill hundreds of thousands, or even a million, people here.

“I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.”

The full Politico article can be viewed at this link.  

How health care inequity could make the COVID-19 crisis worse

As global warnings about COVID-19 intensify, the message is increasingly stark: If you’re sick, stay at home. A wave of cancellations and closings have tried to keep even seemingly healthy people away from big gatherings or close quarters. But if you’re one of the millions of people in the United States who don’t have paid sick leave or adequate health insurance coverage, taking time off of work while you’re sick — or seeking medical care in the first place — can feel impossible.

Trying to soldier on as normal in the middle of a global pandemic carries a different peril, however: the risk of further spreading a disease that has so far killed over 5,000 people worldwide, overwhelmed other countries’ health systems and for which there is no vaccine or cure.

The full PBS article can be viewed be at this link.  

COVID-19 adds new stress to antiquated health record-keeping

The U.S. health care system is on the leading edge of many technologies — except when it comes to passing information between doctors, laboratories, and public health officials. And that could add another snarl to the already troubled effort to test for coronavirus.

Overreliance on faxing, phones and paper records is problem enough in ordinary times. Adding thousands of coronavirus tests a day will test the ability of providers, labs, and public health officials to keep track of all the results. Because not all results are automatically downloaded into physicians' records, the doctors may need to log into laboratory web portals or, if all else fails, turn to faxes and phones to learn test results.

The full Politico article can be viewed at this link.