Increasing Unemployment Numbers Highlight Need for Hospitals to Identify Individuals Potentially Eligible for Medicaid, Other Public Coverage

    GREENVILLE, SC, June 01, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- An estimated 27 million people will lose their health insurance after job loss because of COVID-19, according to data from by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of these people, 79 percent were likely eligible for some form of publicly subsidized coverage in May. Most were eligible for Medicaid (12.7 million), and an additional 8.4 million were eligible for marketplace subsidies to purchase private health insurance.

"COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on our economy with more people losing their jobs and employer-sponsored health insurance each week," said David Young, CEO, Cadre Health. "With loss of health insurance, we know that people often forego health care, seeking care in a hospital emergency room only when there is no other alternative. For hospitals, which were already experiencing billions in uncompensated care costs before COVID-19, there is a significant incentive to make sure every uninsured patient is appropriately screened for eligibility for all publicly available coverage options."

Cadre Health's Patient Reimbursement Optimization Program is deployed in hospitals and leverages technology to screen uninsured patients for eligibility for more than 1600 health insurance and other public programs nationwide. Over 16 months, the technology identified 81 percent of uninsured patients as eligible for Medicaid in states that expanded Medicaid under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act and 50 percent as eligible in non-expansion states.

In one hospital, the technology increased the average monthly number of covered accounts by nearly 200 percent and average monthly reimbursement amount by more than 500 percent.

"This solution has a more than 95 percent accuracy rate," said Young. "No other screening tool or process on the market can match its success. Hospitals reduce their uncompensated care costs, but, more importantly, uninsured patients get comprehensive, affordable coverage to help keep them healthy and protected."

Cadre Health is a healthcare solutions company. We develop, discover, and distribute technology to improve facility operations, health outcomes, and overall experiences throughout the care continuum. More information is available from cadre.health.

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