Above the Fold

Consumers Now Have to Absorb the Full Cost of COVID-19 Care 

Early on in the pandemic (2020), America’s health insurance companies announced they would cover COVID-19-related treatments, including extraordinarily high hospital bills (many totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars for lengthy stays), at 100%. The well-compensated insurance companies also waived copays and deductibles, allowing patients the ability to get the care needed, without the possibility of a major financial hardship. Some took advantage of the moratorium as there were reports early on that hospitals and providers were “coding” visits as COVID-19-related to capture additional profits from insurers during the crisis. Simply put, the pandemic shifted the economics of medicine in 2020 and into 2021. 

But now, many large insurance companies have stopped the waivers and gone back to traditional billing methods, which could leave Americans saddled with large amounts of unexpected debt or at minimum, increased health care costs. With the number of daily active cases over 9.7 million and new daily cases averaging over 150,000 in the last few weeks, there is certainly a large economic impact that some might not be factoring in. For consumers, it might be a good time to check your coverage options as the end of the year approaches. 

Three Things 

1. Eat Chicken? You Might Be Due Some Cash – A recent $181 million cash settlement has been reached between consumers and several chicken producers over alleged price fixing and market manipulation of the poultry market. The defendants, which include Fieldale Farms Corporation, George’s, Mar-Jac Poultry, Peco Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride and Tyson Foods, reportedly worked together to harm consumers through pricing and availability. The suit includes many chicken products purchased between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2020; a judge will decide whether to approve the settlements on Dec. 20. The suit excludes free-range, organic, halal or kosher chicken. 
2. Home Sales Take an Unexpected Break, But… – New home sales reported their first annual decline in 15 months, dropping 6% in the month of August. That said, the median price of homes sold last month was up 16% compared to the same month in 2020. August marked the 13th consecutive month of double-digit price gains, but was the lowest price jump since February. Austin, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Salt Lake City, Utah, experienced the largest price jumps, up +36%, +25% and +24%, respectively. 
3. iOS 15 Offers Unique Health Care Integration – Apple’s latest mobile software will allow users to share data from their health app directly with doctors and other providers through an electronic medical record system. The new options could allow providers to get a more accurate picture of your vitals, both historically and in real time. Obviously, questions around security remain. The largest handler of electronic medical records is Cerner, with more than 25% market share. 

Did You Know? 

Facts About American Insurers

We often talk about the more common property/casualty (P/C) and health insurers such as Allstate, Geico, UnitedHealthcare, Humana and others — but did you know that there were nearly 6,000 different insurance companies in the U.S. at the end of 2019 (almost half of which are P/C)? American insurance premiums totaled $1.28 trillion in 2020, with P/C accounting for 51% and health/life/annuity at 49%. The U.S. insurance industry employed close to 3 million people in 2020. State Farm is the largest insurer, collecting more than $66.1 billion in premiums for a 9.1% market share.