Healthcare News of Note: More than 3,500 deaths in the US attributed to long COVID during a 30-month period
- For a 30-month period beginning in January 2020, long COVID played a part in the deaths of 3,544 people, according to a report by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
- The Department of Justice has support from hospital advocates as it looks to appeal a court ruling that allowed UnitedHealth Group to acquire Change Healthcare.
- Rising interest rates, inflation and supply chain issues were the top concerns of financial leaders responding to a recent McKinsey Global Survey on the role of CFOs.
Over the past few weeks, I have found these industry news stories that should be of interest to healthcare finance professionals.
1. Long COVID attributed as the cause of more than 3,500 deaths in the U.S. from January 2020 through June 2022
For a 30-month period beginning in January 2020, long COVID played a part in the deaths of 3,544 people — less than 1% of the 1,021,487 deaths where “COVID-19 was the underlying or contributing cause of death” in the United States, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
An NCHS news release noted that findings in the report were based on an analysis of death certificates in the National Vital Statistics System that indicated people died of long COVID, which is the common name for post-acute sequelae of COVID-19. Some of those findings included:
88.2% of COVID-19-associated deaths had COVID-19 as the underlying cause, as did 67.5% of long COVID deaths.
393 people died from long COVID in February 2022, the most of any month in the study.
Men accounted for a slightly larger percentage of long COVID deaths (51.5%) than women (48.5%).
The highest percentage of long COVID deaths occurred in older adults, accounting for a total of 1,952 deaths, according to the report. The breakout by age group among older adults is:
- 28.8%, or 717 people, ages 75-84
- 28.1%, or 700 people, ages 85 and older
- 21.5%, or 535 people, ages 65-74
2. AHA plans to support DOJ’s appeal of a ruling on UHG’s purchase of Change Healthcare
Even though UnitedHealth Group (UHG) formally completed its acquisition of Change Healthcare following a favorable September decision in an antitrust case, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) still hopes to appeal the ruling.
After the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, UHG’s Optum subsidiary closed the deal, which was worth a reported $13 billion (when factoring in the assumption of more than $5 billion in debt).
DOJ nonetheless has filed an appeal (login required) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) said it will file an amicus brief in support of the appeal. In March 2021, the AHA wrote a letter to DOJ asking that the proposed transaction be investigated on antitrust grounds.
Change Healthcare will be integrated with Optum Insight, which offers first-pass claims-editing services. DOJ had sought an injunction to stop the combination, arguing, in part, that it could create a monopoly in the market for first-pass claims-editing solutions.
The deal “threatens to reduce competition for the sale of healthcare information technology services to hospitals and other healthcare providers, which could negatively impact consumers and healthcare providers,” AHA wrote in its 2021 letter.
In his September decision, Judge Carl J. Nichols noted that UHG previously had reached a formal agreement to divest ClaimsXten, Change’s first-pass claims-editing product, to a private-equity firm for a reported $2.2 billion. Evidence at the trial established that the firm would invest substantially in the ClaimsXten business, wrote Nichols (a Trump appointee).
AHA also expressed concern in its 2021 letter that because UHG is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, integrating the data sets of Optum and Change “would impact (and likely distort) decisions about patient care and claims processing and denials to the detriment of consumers and healthcare providers, and further increase UHG’s already massive market power.”
— Nick Hut, HFMA senior editor
3. CFOs voice top concerns in McKinsey survey: rising interest rates, inflation and supply chain issues
The COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts are still dominating the landscape, according to a Dec. 15 report by McKinsey & Company. The report authors said rising interest rates, inflation and supply chain issues were the top concerns of financial leaders responding to a McKinsey Global Survey, conducted July 21-Sept. 9, on the role of CFOs.
Due to those concerns, “financial leaders [have] less time to focus on building capabilities and organizational growth,” wrote the report’s authors, adding: “Separately, financial officers appear to set priorities that are somewhat different from those of their organizations, especially when it comes to strategic planning and cash management.”
Additional survey results
The results revealed the top concerns of the 215 surveyed financial leaders, who included 155 company and unit CFOs from 34 countries. The top seven concerns are:
- Rising interest rates (46%)
- Inflation (32%)
- Supply chain (26%)
- Geopolitical instability and conflicts (22%)
- Transition of political leadership (20%)
- Increased economic volatility (18%)
- Changes in trade policy and relationships (16%)
hfm magazine on the top issues in 2022
Articles published in HFMA’s hfm magazine this year provide insight into some of the top concerns noted in the McKinsey survey. Members can access these stories: “Inflation threatens post-pandemic rebound,” “David W. Johnson: Pizza, productivity and the impact of inflation on healthcare finance,” and “Hospitals work to make the supply chain green.”
HFMA bonus content
Read “Reimagining the Patient-Caregiver Relationship,” this year’s fourth installment of our Healthcare 2030 series. The report was written by Nick Hut, HFMA senior editor.
Listen to the end-of-the-year Voices in Healthcare Finance podcast, “HFMA staff discuss the biggest healthcare stories of the year.”
