When Darius Settles died from COVID-19 on the Fourth of July, his family and the city of Nashville were shocked. Even the mayor noted the passing of a 30-year-old without any underlying conditions — one of the city's youngest fatalities at that point. Settles was also uninsured and had just been sent home from an emergency room for the second time and he was worried about medical bills. An investigation into his death found that, like many uninsured COVID-19 patients, he had never been told that cost shouldn't be a concern.
Minneapolis-based Bind Benefits says it has raised $105 million to support the startup company’s continued growth in the market where employers buy health insurance. Last month, Bind announced plans to start selling coverage to employers with 50 or more workers seeking “fully insured” coverage — a new set of customers beyond the company’s initial business providing administrative services to “self-insured” employers that take the risk for health plan costs.
New Mexico hospitals continue to push forward despite losing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during the pandemic. Some state lawmakers got a presentation from various health workers and officials on Wednesday, outlining the latest numbers and pointing out some issues the field is facing. Three of the many topics discussed in the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee virtual meeting were funding, layoffs and primary care services.
The cascading impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have touched all corners of society, including the business world. Entities in manufacturing, distribution, health care, construction, retail, hospitality and more are all grappling with pandemic-related financial and staffing pressures. Even in non-pandemic times, a business’ health can be impacted when workers are injured. Having a balanced workers’ compensation physician panel is crucial to getting employees back to work, but why, and how, should you go about re-examining the composition of your panel?
Several large Southern California hospital systems improperly refused or delayed accepting Covid-19 patients based on their insurance status, according to internal emails among local and state government, hospital and emergency-response officials, leaving severely ill patients waiting for care and adding strain on hospitals overrun by the pandemic.