KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The federal government transitioned the COVID-19 pandemic to an endemic and some medical professionals believe signaling the end of the health emergency could make things harder.
“What does that mean for patients? When can we say it’s over? Does it really ever end?” asked Dr. Stites at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
In 2020, many things were done to make COVID healthcare access easier.
But what the government paid for will change or even be reversed, causing interruptions to important care.
“Makes it more difficult for people to get access to vaccines, more difficult for people to get access to tests,” said President and CEO of Swope Health Jeron Ravin.
Kansas and Missouri health officials say there are more uninsured people than before due to the Medicaid unwinding.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Kansas and Missouri risk losing their Medicaid coverage because of the wind-down.
Healthcare officials urge people to re-register, and renew their eligibility, which is why some are waiving a flag of caution.
“I think it’s a bit too early,” said Ravin. “I can appreciate that everybody is ready to move on from COVID. I’m not quite sure we’re ready.”
Of all the people Ravin serves at Swope Health, 70% have chronic conditions.
While COVID cases are down, testing and vaccines are down, they’ll stay the course.
“We’re still masking for a little while longer, still testing our associates that show signs of symptoms, still paying for their time off if they get sick,” Ravin said. “We will continue to run business as usual. My concern is that our patient population will rise again. When COVID rises, those seeking preventive care stop because they are concerned about other things.”
Ravin said that his concern is long-term health issues, the workforce, and rural health systems.
Swope Health said even with its 70 job openings, the focus is on sign-on bonuses, referral bonuses, and retention bonuses to hold people in the healthcare field.
“My biggest concern is the workforce if we can sustain another outbreak of COVID in which people start quitting working in healthcare,” Ravin said. “Their access to care is more difficult, their staffing shortages are far more difficult. I’m concerned about our rural health systems. We’ve seen a number of them close over Missouri in the last ten years. The best we can do is support them in terms of staffing.”
Katy Trail Community Health serves Sedalia, Marshall, Versailles and Warsaw in Kansas.
“Essentially, we are going back to how Medicaid worked prior to COVID, now having to do with redeterminations,” said CEO of Katy Trail Community Health Chris Stewart. “We are reaching out to all of our patients that are on Medicaid to make sure the state has the appropriate contact information.”
Stewart said they hired a navigator to help in the process.
“We are concerned about the impact,” Stewart said. “We saw an increase in the percentage of patients who are on Medicaid coming to Katy Trail. We don’t have a sense of what that impact will be yet, frankly.”
Stewart said they do expect people will lose their coverage.
With the federal government declaration, Stewart said keeping the community safe will be challenging.
“We will continue to offer testing and free antigen test kits to the community and give vaccines,” she said. “We’ve been struggling with staffing for a long time, as a result of COVID, not so much the public health emergency.”
Stewart said the changing telehealth requirements will be a tremendous burden and encourage the state to offer additional resources.
While some ask what’s the rush to end some of the government backing, they acknowledge a healthier community and are counting their blessings.
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