Healthcare Industry Actions to Protect Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic – April 2, 2020

The Healthcare Leadership Council is comprised of leading companies from every sector of American healthcare.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be sharing examples of actions these companies are taking to protect and assist the public and combat the virus’s spread.  If you would like assistance in reaching a representative for any of these companies, please contact Kelly Fernandez at kfernandez@hlc.org. 

• Anthem, which covers more than 40 million Americans through its health plans, announced it is suspending select prior authorization requirements to enable healthcare providers to meet patient needs more quickly and effectively. The company also launched an initiative to have employees with medical training assist in their communities’ response to COVID-19.

• Change Healthcare, which provides data and analytics services to healthcare payers and providers, is taking multiple steps to speed and improve care during the pandemic, including accelerating data interoperability to provide on-demand access to medical records and enabling work-from-home access to diagnostic imaging for radiologists.

• Mallinckrodt and a partner company, Novoteris, have received clearance from Health Canada to begin trials of a high-dose inhaled nitric oxide therapy to treat the COVID-19 infection and its associated lung complications. The companies expect to begin recruiting patients for the trial in the coming days.

• The Marshfield Clinic health system has launched a “what you need to know” web page about COVID-19 that includes an online screening tool and has also provided a blog post that provides valuable information about the virus for patients with chronic diseases.

• McKesson CEO Brian Tyler met with President Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force and later spoke at a White House press briefing at which he provided information about the work being done to deliver supplies and medicines to healthcare professionals on the front lines of the pandemic.

• A coronavirus patient at the Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, part of the Texas Health Resources system, is being treated with plasma from another patient who has recovered from COVID-19. This possible lifesaving approach was utilized during the Ebola outbreak.