News: UnitedHealth CEO says COVID-19 could permanently cut ER use

COVID-19 could lead to a permanent reduction in emergency department use, UnitedHealth Group executives said during a second quarter earnings call, Think Advisor reported.

As patients skipped checkups and sick visits during the height of the pandemic. , emergency room use similarly looks “pretty sustained down, and it doesn’t seem to be coming back up […] a lot of people don’t expect that utilization to come back,” Think Advisor reported the Group CEO, Andrew Witty, said.

The company says it assumes it will receive extra claims in the future because of the impact of deferred, high-value care. The insurance group noted it is watching numbers closely to see whether COVID-19 has caused a lasting, long-term shift in patient flows.

Editor’s note: The Think Advisor article can be found here. Additional ACDIS coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic can be found here.