Aetna: No hospital stay bills for virus

Insurer going beyond just payment waivers for testing, doctor visit.

One of the nation’s biggest health insures is waiving patient payments for hospital stays tied to the coronavirus.

CVS Health’s insurer Aetna said Wednesday that many of its customers will not have to make copayments or other forms of cost sharing if they wind up admitted to a hospital in the insurer’s provider network.

Many insurers have waived patient costs for testing or doctor visits and telemedicine to encourage people to get help with coronavirus symptoms.

But Aetna, which covers nearly 23 million people, is the first major insurer to extend a payment waiver to the bills many patients will fear most if they become sick.

The move could save those patients thousands of dollars, depending on their coverage and how much health care they’ve used so far this year.

The waiver lasts through June 1. It applies to the insurer’s 3.6 million fully insured customers. Big employers that offer Aetna coverage also can chose to waive those payments, a spokesman for the insurer said.

A recent study put together by researchers with the Covered California health insurance exchange found that a lengthy hospital stay of 12 days could cost a total of $72,000 on average nationally, depending on factors like how long a patient stays in an intensive care unit.

Insured patients would only pay a slice of that bill, but that slice could amount to as much as $6,000 depending on their coverage. Many plans have deductibles that patients must pay before most of their coverage starts.

They also have out-of-pocket maximums, or limits for how much each patient has to spend on care each year. Experts say one hospital stay could easily push a patient up to the plan’s limits.