The FEHBlog visited a large radiology practice in Washington DC today for a routine test. The desk attendant asked the FEHBlog to fill out a brief novel coronavirus questionnaire, e.g., have you travelled to China recently etc. The FEHBlog wondered why they weren’t asking about the flu. It occurred to the FEHBlog that the practice’s employees are vaccinated against the flu but not the coronavirus. In any event, Stat News, a Boston Globe service offers an interview with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about efforts to avoid the novel coronavirus spreading in the U.S.

Healthcare Dive offers a simple side by side analysis of the three bipartisan surprise billing proposals under House of Representatives consideration. Thanks.

Health Payer Intelligence discusses four Social Determinant of Health barriers that health plans are seeking to remove in order to improve access to care. The publications deems those barriers to be

the lack of behavioral and mental healthcare, difficulty in obtaining transportation to healthcare appointments, cost barriers to medication adherence, and access to medical care sites—both physical and virtual.

In a bit of related good news, the CDC reports that

The percentage of all persons who were in families having problems paying medical bills in the past 12 months decreased 4.5 percentage points from 19.7% in 2011 to 15.2% in 2015 and then decreased 1.0 percentage point from 2015 through 2018 (14.2%).

Govexec.com discusses the bipartisan effort underway in Congress to correct some oversights in the new paid family leave law for federal employees. The bill is HR 5885. That program takes effect October 1, 2020.