Those with post-COVID condition face greater health and financial risks, study finds

As the full ramifications of COVID-19 work their way through the health care system, researchers continue to explore new areas of concern for those who contracted the virus. One such study compared those with post-COVID conditions (PCC) to a group without the symptoms. What they found was that the PCC group had more trouble paying for health care treatment and had greater unmet health care needs than the control group.

The study, undertaken by researchers at The Urban Institute, gathered data from nearly 10,000 individuals, segmented into three groups: two-thirds who never had COVID symptoms; another third who had COVID symptoms but not PCC; and 833 with self-reported PCC.

High level, the study reports that “a statistically higher rate of respondents with self-reported PCC did not obtain needed health care in the past year because of cost compared with adults without PCC. Adults with PCC were also more likely to have unmet needs because of difficulties getting timely appointments or health plan authorization, among other challenges with health care institutions or health insurance.”

The study defined the PCC group as “experiencing symptoms more than four weeks after first having COVID-19 that were not explained by another condition or factor.”

The study listed the following access and affordability challenges faced by the PCC group:

• Having a usual place of care
• Forgoing care in the past 12 months because of costs, difficulty finding clinicians, or difficulty using health insurance
• Having problems paying family medical bills in the past 12 months
• Having past-due medical debt

Here’s what the study found relevant to the PCC individuals:

• Those with PCC were more likely to be female, Hispanic, and to have multiple chronic health conditions.
• They were less likely to have been consistently covered by health insurance than the other groups.
• They were more likely to report having unmet health needs than the other groups.
• They had more trouble finding a clinician taking new patients and scheduling an appointment with a doctor.
• They had a slightly more difficult time finding transportation to a physician appointment than other groups.
• They had a much higher rate of individuals reporting difficulties paying for medical care.
• They had a much higher rate of difficulty utilizing their health plan than other groups.

Part of the affordability challenge, the researched opined, stemmed from the added cost to PCC patients of paying for their post-COVID care. Already stressed financially, many of those then struggled with the ongoing costs incurred by their PCC.

Physicians and insurance decision makers both were relatively unfamiliar with PCC, and this may have also contributed to the range of difficulties faced by those with the symptoms. Doctors were confronted by new and often hard-to-diagnose symptoms, and insurers took longer to process claims related to PCC, again possibly due to an unfamiliarity with the topic.

Read more: Employers must accommodate long COVID sufferers returning to work

The conclusion: “Adults with self-reported PCC experienced greater challenges with health care access and affordability than other adults. These barriers may be associated with adverse outcomes for workforce participation and long-term health. Policy makers may be able to expand access to care by accelerating research on PCC treatments, disseminating clinical care guidelines, and regulating insurance practices.”