Wellness

The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions says the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for employers to fight social disparities.

The growing costs faced by today’s health care purchasers and plan members have many returning to proven strategies like V-BID, which lowers or eliminates the out-of-pocket cost for high-value services or medications.

New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Americans responded quickly and thoroughly to directions from federal, state and local leaders, to combat coronavirus.

The social-distancing device could be part of a broader array of new safety protocols put in place.

The juggling act for policy makers will be to reopen without triggering a second wave of infections that leads to a fresh round of lockdowns and yet more economic damage.

There is wide variety in how aggressively the rules are issued and applied during the coronavirus pandemic, and businesses often don’t know which way to turn.

One possible solution is for employers to add a new temporary dependent care benefit, whereby employers can cover dependent care expenses with an expanded set of expense coverage.

Once case numbers become more manageable, the U.S. will move away from self-isolation, and toward containing individual cases. The U.S. will need 100,000 to 300,000 contact tracers to contain the coronavirus.

For starters, they can use the windfall to pay off debt, shore up their HSAs and build a cash reserve.

Public health specialists said a range of tools, high-tech strategies and old-school public health interventions could help tamp down the spread of COVID-19.