The USA has witnessed the most catastrophic events during the entire coronavirus pandemic journey. With over 1 million cases till day and around 80,000 lives lost this country has borne the largest hit by this pandemic. Though the country is coming up back on track with less no. of employees, social distancing, and other precautionary measures with the most economic cities like New York and Seattle being the epicenters of the outbreak it will be a tough job ahead to maintain the economy along with monitoring the positive cases.
With the health and well being of millions of Americans at stake the insurance companies in America are coming to the forefront to help the fellow citizens by providing access to the treatment, testing, and prevention from the COVID-19. These companies have agreed to a waiver in the copays and are willing to cover the cost of treatment for the disease. Following are some of the health insurance providers who are willing to aid the diseased in the USA:
1. ATENA.
Atena a CVS health company is branching out and helping those in need with various schemes and plans for each client.some of the biggest measures taken by this company are:
- waiver in the copays for diagnostic testing for COVID-19, and if anyone is identified as positive the patient will receive a care package.
- Atena is providing a waive in cost-sharing for the inpatient admissions.
- Atena is ensuring that all its providers are compensated at the usual visit rates for the telemedicine
to maintain the smooth functioning of the hospitals this company has collaborated with major hospitals in the cities to help in the transfer of the patients who have been granted a discharge and are not related to COVID-19. this will make sure that though unrelated these patients are placed in a safe environment where their needs will be attended to. doing this will help the hospitals prioritize COVID patients more with an efficient number of available emergency rooms and beds. keeping the mental health of the patients during these stressful times in mind this company is also running some programs which address the mental state of the patients and help them aid in their anxiety and stress.
2. FLORIDA BLUE
For the commercial insurance plan members, Florida blue is willing to waive off the copays for medical testing of COVID-19. Holding the concept of lockdown in view this company planning to launch a virtual care partner ‘teledoc’ for its Medicare Advantage plans. The doctors and specialists linked to this company will now be able to aid the needs of the patients virtually at normal visit rates.
This company is also granting extended time for the payment i.e. through may for the customers who are unable to pay premiums due to the health crisis. Currently Florida blue will waive the member cost-sharing for the patients taking treatment for COVID-19.
Another innovative step taken by Florida blue is that they have developed a free COVID-19 virtual assistant on their websites. this assistant pops up on the websites and you through the insights of the disease and asks questions to check for symptoms and signs related to COVID-19. based on the results the assistant connects you to the primary care provider for further guidance
3. INLAND EMPIRE HEALTH PLAN
The inland empire health is taking measures against the COVID-19 situation by partnering with more and more local hospitals, public health providers, medical associations, etc to pool the efforts and provide the best aid to their members. They have extended their services via telehealth to bring in new members and lay an array of services for them.
For the safety of the health workers, IEHP has organized distribution of more than 2 lakh protective gear like face masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers, and PPE kits to the hospitals and local government agencies. They have opened more number of nursing facilities to avoid crowded emergency rooms in the hospitals.
IEHP has collaborated with local organizations in creative initiatives like increased COVID-19 testing along with strict pharmacy regulations for members and renewed financial support for health workers. In order to transfer the services to the digital platform, IEHP is providing technology scholarships
4. MEDICA HEALTH PLAN
To limit the spread of the coronavirus along with waiving the copays for testing of COVID-19 for the members, co-insurance, etc the medical health plan is also offering the self-employed a concession in fees related to COVID testing. It has donated around $1million to the Minnesota NGOs to aid the vulnerable people of the state the core area of focus being the children, food supply, mental health aid, shelter security, etc. Medica is donating more than 2 lakh disposable protective gear to its members who are most vulnerable and infected by COVID-19. Medica is sourcing and distributing around 1.5 lakh masks and other protection gears to health workers, medical organizations, and its skilled nursing patients.
5. PREMERA BLUE CROSS
The one main measure in slowing down the spread of coronavirus has proven to be the implementation of lockdown. Along with its merits, the on major demerit of lockdown is that the patients are not able to visit the doctors. To resolve this issue Premera Blue Cross has decided to increase the telehealth services for its members which works on the basis of virtual care during this COVID-19 pandemic. The company has partnered with associations like 98point6 and doctor on demand to provide the virtual care via text and audio to the large 2.3 million members of Premera for a time period of 90 days. Due to the financial crisis, Premera Blue Cross is granting up to $100 million to the health providers facing economic pressure. These funds will be retrieved by the company over the course of nine months as percentage claims from JAN 1,2021.
6. HealthPartners
HealthPartners is offering to waive in cost for the testing of COVID-19 irrespective of the location of the test. Along with it, the company is also providing no-cost share for any urgent visit related to the test.
HealthPartners will completely waive those members who are fully insured this waiver includes -copays, coinsurance, and deductibles–when getting treated from an in-network care provider.
Health partners institute and its researchers in the University of Minnesota have come together for the creation of and mobile application which provides the users complete information regarding the health of the neighbourhood i.e indicating the number of corona positive patients and helping them know about COVID-19 hotspots