The Provider Insurance Revenue Study in Healthcare Providers in the United States of America

NCT ID: NCT04587245

Last Updated: 2021-10-18

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Total Enrollment

100 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2020-10-01

Study Completion Date

2022-10-15

Brief Summary

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The investigators are enrolling 100 healthcare Provider volunteers (n=100) from across the United States to help to evaluate and document the financial impact of COVID-19 on Physicians and other healthcare Providers. This investigation will compare individual Physician revenues before and after the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigators expect to be able to differentiate between revenues lost due to the COVID-19-driven business recession and revenues lost due to the manipulation of reimbursement processes by insurance companies. The inextricable linkage between Payer and Physician revenues suggests that Payer revenues are higher at the direct expense of Physicians, since both streams come from the same sources of funding. The secondary objective is aimed at revealing the methods Payers use to retain more money.

Detailed Description

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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 2020, Physicians and other medical Providers have taken devastating hits to their practice revenues. Most of the losses are due to doctors being forced to curtail elective procedures and office visits as Americans were ordered to stay home during the height of the national health emergency.

As Physicians were able to return to work in the early Summer, even if only partially, many had to adjust to the newer medical practice of telehealth, and the lower revenues that came with it. The Centers for Medicare \& Medicaid Services (CMS) gave assurances to Physicians that Medicare would reimburse telehealth encounters at 100% of the office visit rate. But private Payers were under no such obligation. Across the country, Physicians are reporting that they're being reimbursed at about 70% of an office visit rate despite the fact that telehealth requires both resources and expertise to implement effectively, and each encounter takes up to twice as long as an office visit.

Adding to financial hardships, Physicians across the nation are reporting that legitimate insurance claims are being held up and denied by the insurance companies at a higher rate than ever, cutting off the cash that they need so desperately. As of June 1, only half of Physician practices say they have enough cash to stay open for another month.

In just 2 months in the spring of 2020, over 45 million Americans lost their jobs and for many, that also meant the loss of their employment-related health insurance. Despite shedding a massive number of members from their rolls, health insurance companies are actually predicting record profits for 2020. The pandemic it seems, is very good indeed for the health insurance business. Private investors and executives are taking huge dividends and bonuses out of the system just at a time when US healthcare needs a vast new investment of healthcare resources into the system. The good fortune of a few individuals and corporations comes at an as yet untold expense to American society.

The formula for insurance company success in a pandemic only happens one way. By keeping member premiums, delaying payments, and denying treatment authorizations, the large health insurance companies are taking advantage of the profound misfortunes of both doctors and patients during a national health emergency.

The COVID-19 pandemic will have adverse effects on the health of Americans that will be sprawling and long-felt. However, it is not for this study to decide whether private interests will always be antithetical to public interests when it comes to healthcare. That is a public debate that will continue to evolve as the profound weaknesses of the American way of distributing healthcare are magnified and exposed in a time of social upheaval.

The investigators do know that in order to get a handle on the major damage we see occurring in real-time- and to inform that debate, it is first necessary to measure it.

Conditions

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Covid19 Financial Disclosure

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

COHORT

Study Time Perspective

RETROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

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Physicians

Physician or healthcare Provider based anywhere in the United States who is eligible to submit claims to an insurance company on behalf of patients

Online questionnaire and interviews

Intervention Type OTHER

Online questionnaire, financial statements (one month per quarter in 2020) submitted electronically, interview with professional accounting firm and review of data and exit Interview

Interventions

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Online questionnaire and interviews

Online questionnaire, financial statements (one month per quarter in 2020) submitted electronically, interview with professional accounting firm and review of data and exit Interview

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Healthcare Provider based anywhere in the United States who is eligible to submit claims to an insurance company on behalf of patients.
* To agree to participate in this study

Exclusion Criteria

* Any condition that at the discretion of the principal investigator renders the subject ineligible to participate in this study.
Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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University of California, Irvine

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

ND Sciences, LLC

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Henry Broeska, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of California Irvine Beall Applied Innovation

Locations

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University of California Irvine Beall Applied Innovation

Irvine, California, United States

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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United States

Central Contacts

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Henry Broeska, PhD

Role: CONTACT

949-332-9638

Charles Bronson, MBA

Role: CONTACT

415-530-8742

Facility Contacts

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Henry Broeska

Role: primary

949-332-9638

Charles Bronson

Role: backup

415-530-8742

Other Identifiers

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PIRStudy

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id