A preliminary analysis that health insurers have made of the plans of hospitals and university medical centers (umcs) for catch-up care, shows that a majority expects to provide the care that they now know has been postponed due to corona this year. The other hospitals will provide part of this care in 2021. Health insurers in the Netherlands say they are happy that hospitals can find a balance between helping patients and the recovery of employees. This is reported by Zorgverzekeraars Nederland (ZN) in a press release.
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Many hospitals and UMCs have already started catching up on delayed care. Health insurers and care providers have agreed with each other that the implementation of catch-up care will be closely monitored. As a result, challenges for certain specialisms and regions can be quickly identified and solved, for example through collaboration between healthcare providers. Health insurers help insured parties with health care mediation in finding a care provider who can help them faster or faster. Unfortunately, this is not possible for all deferred care. The plans show that especially complex surgical procedures, which often also require a bed in the IC, have been postponed due to corona. Not all healthcare providers can provide this specialist care, which means that relocation of treatments is not always possible.
Delta-variant coronavirus
The implementation of catch-up care depends on a number of factors. The outbreak of the Delta variant affects the occupancy of hospitals and can therefore also have an impact on the extent to which hospitals can work on making up for delayed care. In addition, it is important that hospital employees involved in the care of corona patients can first recover both physically and mentally from the past intensive period. The availability of the employees after the summer partly determines how much care can be provided then.
By: National Care Guide
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