The New York Times reports, “In the face of growing opposition from hospital and doctors groups, UnitedHealthcare said on Thursday it would delay a plan to stop paying for emergency room visits that it deemed nonurgent, at least until the pandemic has ended.” The policy, “which would affect millions of United’s customers, was greeted with longstanding worry over the unintended consequences of the coronavirus crisis on Americans’ health as people put off care for serious illnesses.” The people “delaying care may be among those populations that are already the most vulnerable, according to a study by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which looked at individuals who said they had put off care.” The change “had also sparked outrage in light of the steep declines in E.R. visits that ironically resulted in healthy profits and savings for insurers.”

USA Today reports that the policy “to review and potentially clamp down on some hospital payments drew outcries from the American Hospital Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians about potential harm of patients’ health and finances.” American Hospital Association officials “urged the insurer to abandon the policy altogether.” Rick Pollack, “president and CEO of the hospital group, said, If enacted, the policy ‘would have a chilling effect on patients seeking emergency services, with potentially dire consequences for their health.’”

Also reporting are the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Modern Healthcare, the Naples (FL) Daily News, and Fierce Healthcare.

From the news release of the American Association for Justice.