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. 2020 Oct;35(10):3036-3039.
doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-06042-3. Epub 2020 Jul 22.

Planning for the Post-COVID Syndrome: How Payers Can Mitigate Long-Term Complications of the Pandemic

David H Jiang  1 , Rozalina G McCoy  2   3
Affiliations

Planning for the Post-COVID Syndrome: How Payers Can Mitigate Long-Term Complications of the Pandemic

David H Jiang et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, payers across the USA have stepped up to alleviate patients' financial burden by waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing and treatment. However, there has been no substantive discussion of potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on patient health or their financial and policy implications. After recovery, patients remain at risk for lung disease, heart disease, frailty, and mental health disorders. There may also be long-term sequelae of adverse events that develop in the course of COVID-19 and its treatment. These complications are likely to place additional medical, psychological, and economic burdens on all patients, with lower-income individuals, the uninsured and underinsured, and individuals experiencing homelessness being most vulnerable. Thus, there needs to be a comprehensive plan for preventing and managing post-COVID-19 complications to quell their clinical, economic, and public health consequences and to support patients experiencing delayed morbidity and disability as a result.

Keywords: COVID-19; access to care; cost-sharing; underinsured; uninsured.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. McCoy is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institute of Health (K23DK114497). In the past 36 months, she has also received support from the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery and from AARP® (Quality Measure Innovation Grant).

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