Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pandemic Response Feels The Pinch As Aid Funds Start To Dry Up
NPR: As Federal COVID Funding Runs Out, Support For Uninsured Suffers
The first real-world consequences of dwindling federal COVID-19 funds have started to be felt in recent days. Coronavirus tests for uninsured patients are no longer free in some places. That's because the program that reimbursed clinics and hospitals for the testing, as well as for treating uninsured patients with COVID-19, stopped accepting claims last week "due to lack of sufficient funds." Some clinics have already started to turn away people without insurance who come to get tested and can't afford to pay for it. (Simmons-Duffin, 3/29)
Bloomberg: U.S. Covid Response Showing Cracks As Congress Delays Funds
Personic Health Care has been providing free Covid testing for uninsured families in Philadelphia and northern Virginia throughout the pandemic, thanks in part to federal support. But earlier this month when the White House said that the U.S. doesn’t have the funds to cover those costs, it put Personic, a mid-sized patient-monitoring and telehealth company, in a precarious spot. The company wants to continue offering the free tests, but that’s not sustainable through another surge of infections, said Azmat Husain, its founder and chief medical officer. (Rutherford, 3/28)
The Washington Post: Clinics, Hospitals Brace For End Of Cushion For Uninsured Covid Care
Christina Paz was typing up notes about a patient she’d just seen at Centro San Vicente, El Paso’s largest community health center, when an email from Washington showed up. “Lord,” she thought as she read it at the clinic’s nursing station. “Oh, my God.” The brief email told Paz, a nurse practitioner who is the clinic’s chief executive officer, that at 11:59 p.m. on March 22 the federal COVID-19 Uninsured Program would stop accepting claims for testing and treating for the deadly virus on patients who had no way to pay their medical bills. (Goldstein, 3/28)
The Philadelphia Tribune: How Pharmacies And Labs Are Scrambling To Manage Loss Of Federal COVID Funds
Elissa Devenny is at a crossroads. When the federal program she’s been using to cover her costs for vaccinating uninsured patients dries up on April 6, her small pharmacy in West Philadelphia will have to do one of two things: Find a way to pay for those vaccinations, or stop vaccinating altogether. “We don’t have an exact plan yet,” said Devenny, who is the pharmacy manager at a SunRay Drugs location. “It’s definitely going to make a huge impact.” (Feldman and Yu, 3/28)
