How Were Hospital Admissions Impacted by COVID-19? Trends in Overall and Non-COVID-19 Hospital Admissions Through August 8, 2020

Issue Brief
  1. Epic data was compared to COVID-19 data from KFF, “State Data and Policy Actions to Address Coronavirus (available at: https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/state-data-and-policy-actions-to-address-coronavirus/) and U.S. population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, “State Population Totals and Components of Change: 2010-2019” (available at: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-state-total.html).

     

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  2. The predictive model was based on data through Jan 25, 2020 because that was the first week with a reported COVID-19 case in the United States. We used a generalized additive model and fit it to weekly admission volume, combining long term trend, yearly seasonal, and holiday effects. Forecasts were then obtained for Jan 26, 2020 through Dec 26, 2020.

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  3. Cynthia Cox, Rabah Kamal, and Daniel McDermott, “How have healthcare utilization and spending changed so far during the coronavirus pandemic?” Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, Aug. 6, 2020.

     

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  4. Cynthia Cox, Rabah Kamal, and Daniel McDermott, “How have healthcare utilization and spending changed so far during the coronavirus pandemic?” Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, Aug. 6, 2020.

     

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  5. Jeff Trinkl, and Owen Sizemore, “Return to Near Average Number of ED Visits for Acute MI and Strokes 12 Weeks Post COVID-19 Emergency Declaration,” Epic Health Research Network, July 7, 2020.

     

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  6. Jeff Trinkl, and Owen Sizemore, “Return to Near Average Number of ED Visits for Acute MI and Strokes 12 Weeks Post COVID-19 Emergency Declaration,” Epic Health Research Network, July 7, 2020.

     

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  7. Christopher Mast and Alejandro Munoz del Rio, “Delayed Cancer Screenings—A Second Look,” Epic Health Research Network, July 17, 2020.

     

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  8. Ateev Mehrotra, Michael Chernew, David Linetsky, Hilary Hatch, David Cutler, and Eric C. Schneider, “The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Visits: Changing Patterns of Care in the Newest COVID-19 Hot Spots,” Commonwealth Fund, August 13, 2020

     

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  9. Engy Ziedan, Kosali I. Simon and Coady Wing, “Effects of State Covid-19 Closure Policy on Non-Covid-19 Health Care Utilization,” National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2020.

     

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  10. Katie Martin, Daniel Kurowski, Phillip Given, Kevin Kennedy, Elianna Clayton, “The Impact of COVID-19 on the Use of Preventive Health Care,” Health Care Cost Institute, Sept. 9, 2020

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  11. John D. Birkmeyer, Amber Barnato, Nancy Birkmeyer, Robert Bessler, and Jonathan Skinner. “The Impact Of The COVID-19 Pandemic On Hospital Admissions In The United States.” Health Affairs September 24, 2020.

     

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  12. Dhruv Khullar, Amelia M. Bond and William L. Schpero. “COVID-19 and the Financial Health of US Hospitals.” JAMA. 2020;323(21):2127–2128.

     

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  13. Karyn Schwartz and Anthony Damico, “Distribution of CARES Act Funding Among Hospitals,” KFF, May 13, 2020.

     

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  14. This was calculated using 2019 National Health Expenditure data to estimate total revenue. We assumed that hospitals received 50% of the $10.2 billion allocated to rural providers and assumed that hospitals did not get any of the $20 billion in Phase 3 funding.

     

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  15. Karyn Schwartz and Jennifer Tolbert, “Limitations of the Program for Uninsured COVID-19 Patients Raise Concerns,” KFF, Oct. 8, 2020.

     

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  16. Eric Lopez, Gary Claxton, Karyn Schwartz, Matthew Rae, Nancy Ochieng, and Tricia Neuman, “Comparing Private Payer and Medicare Payment Rates for Select Inpatient Hospital Services,” KFF, July 7, 2020; Eric Lopez, Tricia Neuman, Gretchen Jacobson and Larry Levitt, “How Much More Than Medicare Do Private Insurers Pay? A Review of the Literature,” KFF, April 15, 2020; MACPAC, “Medicaid Hospital Payment: A Comparison across States and to Medicare,” MACPAC, April 2017.

     

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  17. Juliette Cubanski, Karyn Schwartz, Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek and Tricia Neuman, “Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments for COVID-19 Revenue Loss: Time to Repay?” KFF, Aug. 7, 2020.

     

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  18. Section 2501 of H.R. 8337.

     

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  19. CBO, “Preliminary Estimate of the Effects of H.R. 748, the CARES Act, Public Law 116-136, Revised, With Corrections to the Revenue Effect of the Employee Retention Credit and to the Modification of a Limitation on Losses for Taxpayers Other Than Corporations,” CBO, April 27, 2020.

     

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  20. Reed Abelson, “Major U.S. Health Insurers Report Big Profits, Benefiting From the Pandemic,” New York Times, Aug. 5, 2020; KFF, “When Cost-Sharing Waivers for COVID-19 Treatment Expire for People with Private Insurance Plans,” KFF, Aug. 24, 2020.

     

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  21. Rachel Fehr and Cynthia Cox, “Data Note: 2020 Medical Loss Ratio Rebates,” KFF, April 17, 2020.

     

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  22. American Cancer Society – Cancer Action Network, “COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Cancer Patients and Survivors Survey Findings Summary,” American Cancer Society – Cancer Action Network, Available at: https://www.fightcancer.org/sites/default/files/National%20Documents/Survivor%20Views.COVID19
    %20Polling%20Memo.Final_.pdf
    (accessed Oct. 8, 2020).

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  23. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Your Health: Older Adults,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-adults.html (accessed Oct. 8, 2020).

     

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  24. Eric Lopez, Gary Claxton, Karyn Schwartz, Matthew Rae, Nancy Ochieng, and Tricia Neuman, “Comparing Private Payer and Medicare Payment Rates for Select Inpatient Hospital Services,” KFF, July 7, 2020.

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