Employment security, health insurance, and mental health are issues that are dominating care management.
The dramatic rise in unemployment has received considerable focus across the country, with so many experiencing challenges with health insurance, access to care, and added numbers of persons at risk for issues associated with the social determinants of health (SDoH). One in 10 eligible workers have filed for claims since the pandemic escalation in mid-March, with Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, and Rhode Island seeing one out of every five workers filing. New York State alone has the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, currently at 1.4 million jobless claims. Other states are seeing comparably exorbitant claims rates, including especially high percentages in California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
A new combined report by SRSS and the Commonwealth Fund has confirmed the stark realities of the situation, highlighting the historic intersection of the pandemic, employment security, health insurance, and necessary access to healthcare. Over 1,000 people were surveyed the second week of April, with the following results:
The survey also mentioned the gross rise in anxiety among those who experienced a loss of employment or cuts to hours or salary. Much has been written about the massive impact of the pandemic on mental health of all populations, but this survey specifically found that:
Increased costs, decreased revenue, and rapidly rising numbers of uninsured are all of deep concern to healthcare organizations. This is reflected by the fact that over 160 health systems across the country have furloughed or laid off employees, with other entities soon to join this unfortunate club. Healthcare organizations are struggling with massive costs. However, they will soon add unprecedented numbers of healthcare employees to the growing tally of those dealing with socioeconomic and psychosocial challenges, issues previously considered only for marginal and disenfranchised populations and communities served by their employers.
This week’s Monitor Mondays Listeners Survey asked listeners about their experiences with respect to the number of patients reporting lack of health insurance. The results are viewable here, yielding considerable concerns moving forward for the health and well-being of all persons.
Programming Note: Ellen Fink-Samnick is a permanent panelist on Monitor Mondays. Listen to her live reporting every Monday at 10-10:30 a.m. EST.
EDITOR’S NOTE Day 3 of the federal shutdown continues. This article by Mark Spivey is part of a special section today published by RACmonitor and
As expected, the federal shutdown began early Wednesday morning. What’s unknown is how long it will continue. Neither congressional Republicans nor Democrats appear to be
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Sepsis sequencing continues to challenge even experienced coding and CDI professionals, with evolving guidelines, documentation gaps, and payer scrutiny driving denials and data inconsistencies. In this webcast, Payal Sinha, MBA, RHIA, CCDS, CDIP, CCS, CCS-P, CCDS-O, CRC, CRCR, provides clear guideline-based strategies to accurately code sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock, assign POA indicators, clarify the relationship between infection and organ dysfunction, and align documentation across teams. Attendees will gain practical tools to strengthen audit defensibility, improve first-pass accuracy, support appeal success, reduce denials, and ensure accurate quality reporting, empowering organizations to achieve consistent, compliant sepsis coding outcomes.
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