Pandemic coverage still has many “holes” which allow surprise medical bills
The AP (10/11, Murphy) reported that while “many” insurance companies “and the U.S. government have offered to pick up or waive costs tied to the virus, holes remain for big bills to slip through and surprise patients,” and the pandemic has “exposed well-known gaps in a system that mixes private insurers, government programs and different levels of coverage.” The article added, “The vast majority of…patients will incur few medical costs as they wait for their body to fight off mild symptoms. But patients who visit emergency rooms or wind up hospitalized may be vulnerable financially.”
U.S. coronavirus death rate highest in developed world, study indicates
Bloomberg (10/12, Cortez) reports, “The proportion of Americans dying from coronavirus infections is the highest in the developed world, according to a study of global mortality rates that shows the U.S. pandemic response left citizens exposed to the lethal disease.” Early on “in the outbreak, the U.S. mortality rate from [COVID-19] was lower than in many other hard-hit countries, including the U.K., Spain and the Netherlands, according to the report” published in JAMA. However, “as spring turned to summer, the U.S. largely failed to embrace public-health and policy measures that have helped other countries reduce death rates.”
Study: COVID-19 pandemic might have caused 75K more fatalities in spring, summer than previously believed
USA Today (10/12, Rodriguez) reports, “The coronavirus pandemic may have caused tens of thousands of more deaths in the spring and summer than previously thought, a new study says.” Researchers “found nearly 75,000 more people may have died from the pandemic than what was recorded in March to July, according to the report published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA.” By examining “death certificates, the study found more than 150,000 deaths were officially attributed to COVID-19 during that period.” But, “researchers determined nearly 75,000 additional deaths were indirectly caused by the pandemic – bringing the total number of deaths for those four months to more than 225,000.”
NBC News (10/12, Edwards) reports one possible “explanation for the gap may be underreporting or misreporting of COVID-19-related deaths – in other words, not counting COVID-19 deaths.” The “study looked at death statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Census Bureau.”
COVID-19 pandemic said to have had an impact on people with mental illnesses
CNN (10/12, Howard) reports on the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with mental illnesses. According to the results of a CDC survey published in August, “almost 41% of US adults…reported struggling with their mental health or substance use – both related to the coronavirus pandemic and some of the measures put in place to contain it, such as physical distancing.” Dr. Patrice Harris, the immediate past president of AMA, said, “Folks should also look to see what their local, state and county mental health authorities are doing because I know many of those authorities have developed crisis lines. We want people to know that they can access the help that they need when they need it.”
CDC says even people with moderate overweight may be at risk for severe COVID-19
The New York Times (10/10, Rabin) reported the CDC is warning that people with moderate overweight “may be more likely to become seriously ill when infected with the coronavirus.” Considering this warning, “nearly three-quarters of Americans may be at increased risk of severe COVID-19 if infected with the coronavirus.” Additional “medical conditions for which there is limited or mixed evidence of increased [COVID-19] severity include asthma, cerebrovascular disease and cystic fibrosis, the CDC said.” Those “medical conditions clearly shown to increase the risk of COVID-19 include cancer, chronic kidney disease, heart disease and sickle cell disease, among others.”CDC says even people with moderate overweight may be at risk for severe COVID-19
