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Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day one thirty

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Speaker 1: three since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's main story.

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Speaker 1: By now, we're all familiar with social distancing. But while

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Speaker 1: social distancing might help protect us from the virus, medical

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Speaker 1: distancing might be hurting our health in the short and

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Speaker 1: long term. A new campaign by medical providers and health

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Speaker 1: insurers is asking Americans to stop avoiding the doctor's office.

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Speaker 1: But first, Here's what happened in virus news today. The

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Speaker 1: coronavirus tightened its grip on the Asia Pacific region. Deaths

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Speaker 1: reached a new high in Indonesia, and infections hit records

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Speaker 1: in Hong Kong and Japan. Cases also set a record

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Speaker 1: in Australia, once hailed as a virus success story, With

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Speaker 1: coronavirus cases surging across the US, the country is again

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Speaker 1: facing an issue that plagued it in the pandemics early days.

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Speaker 1: Overwhelming demanded labs has led to longer and longer wait

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Speaker 1: times for test results. Hospitals are short on supplies, and

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Speaker 1: even major labs are so bogged down that turnaround times

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Speaker 1: can exceed a week. The absence of a quick, accurate,

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Speaker 1: and effective testing strategy that can be scaled up to

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Speaker 1: demand underscores just how badly the country has managed the

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Speaker 1: fallout of the novel coronavirus. Finally, US health officials agreed

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Speaker 1: to pay one point nine five billion dollars for one

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Speaker 1: hundred million doses of the vaccine made by Fiser and

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Speaker 1: bio Intech. According to a statement, the companies will be

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Speaker 1: paid after the vaccine is approved by regulators and delivered.

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Speaker 1: The vaccine would be available to the American people for free.

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Speaker 1: Nations around the world have begun ordering vaccines that are

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Speaker 1: still being tested. The US has already ordered experimental shots

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Speaker 1: developed by the University of Oxford and Astra Zenica. And

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Speaker 1: now for today's main story. Since the pandemic began, many

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Speaker 1: physicians and hospitals have been overwhelmed with COVID nineteen cases. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: other medical services, whether it's routine doctor appointments, diagnostic screening tests,

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Speaker 1: or even a urgency room visits for heart attacks and strokes,

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Speaker 1: have fallen dramatically as Americans avoid hospitals and medical offices

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Speaker 1: for fear of catching the virus. But the long term

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Speaker 1: consequences of Americans putting off basic medical care may be disastrous.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Healthcare reporter John Tazzi spoke with health insurance company

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Speaker 1: Humana and lab Corps, a clinical laboratory company, about their

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Speaker 1: new campaign called Stop Medical Distancing. Who came up with

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Speaker 1: the idea of the Stop Medical Distancing campaign? So when

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Speaker 1: I talked to the folks from Humanita and lab Corps,

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Speaker 1: they credited the Humanity CEO Bruce Broussard for getting a

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Speaker 1: bunch of healthcare industry leaders together early on in the

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Speaker 1: pandemic trying to just kind of think through, you know,

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Speaker 1: what the industry's response should be and how they could

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Speaker 1: could help and take care of their their members and

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Speaker 1: their customers. I think this is one of the outgrowths

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Speaker 1: of that effort. And you know, the campaign involves not

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Speaker 1: just Humanity and Lab Corps, but other companies Walgreens, McKesson, other,

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Speaker 1: Scott and White Health, the American Heart Association uh and

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Speaker 1: other hospitals and healthcare groups. And what problem is the

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Speaker 1: Stop Medical Distancing campaign trying to solve. Yeah, what we've

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Speaker 1: seen since March in the US when things really shut down,

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Speaker 1: is that people stopped getting medical care for a lot

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Speaker 1: of things that they ordinarily would have. You know, as

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Speaker 1: the pandemic has gone on and accelerated in some parts

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Speaker 1: of the country, people are neglecting their healthcare needs and

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Speaker 1: sometimes real urgent problem because the fear of the virus.

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Speaker 1: So there have been a number of healthcare companies, hospitals,

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Speaker 1: patient groups that have come together to sort of, you know,

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Speaker 1: put together a campaign to encourage people to make sure

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Speaker 1: that they're getting the appropriate care that they need. So

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Speaker 1: tell me a little bit more about this. What kinds

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Speaker 1: of delays or um other things have we been seeing

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Speaker 1: reduced because of this concern for COVID. So in the

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Speaker 1: early days, one of the first things that happened was

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Speaker 1: hospitals canceled uh sort of what are called ellective procedures,

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Speaker 1: planned scheduled care because they didn't know whether they would

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Speaker 1: need those beds and staff to care for COVID patients.

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Speaker 1: But beyond that kind of official cancelation, there's been you know,

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of fear from people who don't

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Speaker 1: want to go into hospitals, don't want to go to

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Speaker 1: the doctor's offices or go for other care because they're

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Speaker 1: afraid that it might expose them to the virus. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you could go into some of the longer term effects,

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Speaker 1: for example, um avoiding, say getting a test or a

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Speaker 1: screening for something. What what are some of the consequences

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Speaker 1: of that being put off during this time. Yeah, we

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Speaker 1: talked to Brian Kavaney, who's the chief medical officer and

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Speaker 1: president of lab Corps Diagnostics business. It's almost heartbreaking because

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Speaker 1: so much of the testing that we've seen the biggest

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Speaker 1: declines in are things that are time sensitive and incredibly

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Speaker 1: important to people's health and healthcare, things like HIV testing, hepatitis,

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Speaker 1: the testing. We've seen incredible declines in cancer testing from

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Speaker 1: colorrectal cancer to pap smears, cervical screening, HPV screening, things

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Speaker 1: that are directly related to people being diagnosed with various

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Speaker 1: cancers by their doctors and then able to start early

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Speaker 1: treatment which is potentially more effective and potentially less costly

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Speaker 1: overall for people. What is their message to people right

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Speaker 1: now about those who perhaps have either delayed medical care

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Speaker 1: for things besides covid or delayed some of these tests

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Speaker 1: are screening. You know, while physical distancing is important for

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Speaker 1: preventing the spread of of covid um, that you shouldn't

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Speaker 1: skip important medical care because the risk could actually be

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Speaker 1: greater than than the risk of exposure to the virus.

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Speaker 1: They've talked about kind of increasing connections to telehealth and

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Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of care as we know,

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Speaker 1: has moved online into virtual settings and then in physical settings.

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Speaker 1: Doctors offices, hospitals and other places of care have really

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Speaker 1: tried to adapt and create safety precautions so people can

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Speaker 1: get the medical care they need and minimize the risk

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Speaker 1: of exposure to COVID. And so I'm hoping maybe you know,

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Speaker 1: in in talking with both Humanity and Lab Corps, what

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Speaker 1: are they specifically trying to do to to realize this message? Um,

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Speaker 1: what are some of the actions that they have taken.

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Speaker 1: Part of it is just public awareness and reaching out

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Speaker 1: to you know, their customers, their members. A lot of

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Speaker 1: it is around sort of building public confidence. That's one

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Speaker 1: thing that will shrank. Who is Humana's chief medical officer

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Speaker 1: told me, it's not enough for us to put these

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Speaker 1: efforts together internally as companies and in partnership with each other.

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Speaker 1: It's essential that we build that confidence in all Americans

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Speaker 1: so that they do feel that comfortable, that comfort and

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Speaker 1: they do feel that confidence to be able to go

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Speaker 1: back and see their doctor in person. To call up

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Speaker 1: their doctor and better understand what their challenges should be

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Speaker 1: or how to manage their conditions, and to start rebuilding

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Speaker 1: those bridges that many of which have been they've been

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Speaker 1: isolated over the last couple of months. What they're trying

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Speaker 1: to do is make sure that people understand if they

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Speaker 1: have urgent medical needs, that they can get care for them,

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Speaker 1: either virtually or in person, while minimizing their risk of

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Speaker 1: exposure to the virus. You know, say I'm contemplating going

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Speaker 1: to a doctor's appointment for something, or I'm going to

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Speaker 1: the hospital for a much indeed screening test. I mean,

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Speaker 1: how can I calculate this risk of will I get

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Speaker 1: COVID if I go to the hospital? Essentially, it's a

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Speaker 1: really hard question for people, and I don't you know,

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Speaker 1: we're in uncharted territory in some ways, so I don't

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Speaker 1: think there's a clear answer. But you know, people are

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Speaker 1: bad at kind of evaluating risk, right. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: we've seen reports of emergency room visits for heart attacks

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Speaker 1: and strokes go down, you know, really dramatically in some cases,

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Speaker 1: and that's concerning to the medical community. Um, those are

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Speaker 1: conditions where you know urgent care can save your life.

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Speaker 1: So people need to sort of balance their caution about

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Speaker 1: exposure to COVID with making sure that they're not avoiding

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Speaker 1: a medical intervention that could could save their life. And

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Speaker 1: so I'm wondering perhaps what we can look to in

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Speaker 1: the coming months in terms of what, you know, is

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Speaker 1: the long term kind of campaign strategy for this stop

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Speaker 1: medical distancing. I mean, what, what what's their plan? I

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Speaker 1: think we're at a really interesting point where, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you go back to March or April in the

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Speaker 1: United States, maybe many of us expected that, you know,

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Speaker 1: within a couple of months the virus would be more

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Speaker 1: controlled than it is and that it would be would

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Speaker 1: feel safer to go in for care um and we're

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Speaker 1: just not at that point yet. You know, Americans are

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Speaker 1: really going to have to sort of understand how to

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Speaker 1: you know, how to get the medical care they need

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Speaker 1: in this situation. And you know, it's interesting when you

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Speaker 1: hear a company like Humana, which is health insurance company.

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Speaker 1: We men are sending up masks to all of our

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Speaker 1: members and trying to provide peace of mind and guidance

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Speaker 1: as well as as sort of materials to try to

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Speaker 1: help keep our members safe so that when the provider

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Speaker 1: says that I need to see you on this. I

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Speaker 1: need that you need to come in and get a lad.

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Speaker 1: There's certain certain procedures that are necessary. I need to

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Speaker 1: see you in my own eyes that the patient will

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Speaker 1: feel safe doing so. You know, insurvers generally are not

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Speaker 1: encouraging people to use more healthcare right there. You know,

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Speaker 1: they're seen as these gatekeepers or that stand in the

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Speaker 1: way of care. So to to see insurers step up

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Speaker 1: and say, you know, we need to make sure that

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Speaker 1: our members are getting appropriate care um really shows you know, how,

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Speaker 1: you know, as serious the problem is. These challenges are

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Speaker 1: only going to be exacerbated, and it really calls for

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Speaker 1: a greater deal of partnership so that patients are not

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Speaker 1: sort of out there on their own, so that they

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Speaker 1: feel connected to their providers, uh, and so that we're

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Speaker 1: able to sort of take a holistic view at the

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Speaker 1: whole breadth of challenges that they're facing and try to

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Speaker 1: support them through this. This is gonna be hard. It

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Speaker 1: is gonna be hard. It's gonna be hard for all

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Speaker 1: of us. And the more we can be a partner,

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Speaker 1: the more we can be proactive, the more we can

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Speaker 1: leverage technology, and the more we can meet those patients

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Speaker 1: where they are in their home, will be in a

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Speaker 1: much better position to be able to support them. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And that's really going to be sort of the focus

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Speaker 1: in the in the months to come. As you were

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Speaker 1: talking about a little bit earlier, the kind of lack

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Speaker 1: of getting some of these either regular checkups or screenings

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Speaker 1: or tests, even though they were perhaps diagnostic in some cases,

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Speaker 1: that there is a concern that an issue that could

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Speaker 1: have been caught early on is now not going to

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Speaker 1: be caught and we'll just lead to a much more

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Speaker 1: serious problem requiring much more serious medical care later on

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Speaker 1: if it does continue to be delayed. So there is

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Speaker 1: I think what's the word of snowball effect potential to

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Speaker 1: medical distancing essentially. You know, the industry is still sort

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Speaker 1: of figuring out how to respond to that. And you know,

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Speaker 1: we've seen efforts by individual hospital companies, are individual institutions

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Speaker 1: trying to you know, encourage people and reassure people that

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Speaker 1: they can come back for care. Many of us have

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Speaker 1: gotten messages from our eye doctors and dentists saying that

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Speaker 1: they're reopened and ready for business. And you know, I mean,

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Speaker 1: let's be clear, like healthcare providers make money when they

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Speaker 1: provide services, so there is a you know, self interested

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Speaker 1: element to you know, to some of this. Right, this

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Speaker 1: is their business and if their customers are afraid to

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Speaker 1: come in, they don't make any money. But there is

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Speaker 1: I think clearly a real um clinical need for people

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Speaker 1: who have delayed care to to get it in some situations,

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Speaker 1: and um a real danger to deferring care for for

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Speaker 1: too long or being afraid to go in for an

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Speaker 1: emergency condition that really needs urgent treatment. That was John Tozzi,

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Speaker 1: and that's it for our show today. For coverage of

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Speaker 1: the outbreak from one and twenty bureaus around the world,

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Speaker 1: visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like

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Speaker 1: the show, please leave us a review and a rating

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to

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Speaker 1: help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily

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Speaker 1: edition is produced by top foreheads Jordan Gospoure, Magnus Henrickson

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Speaker 1: and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by

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Speaker 1: John Tozzi. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are

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Speaker 1: Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head

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Speaker 1: of podcasts. Thanks for listening. The LA