Panel, Conference Presentation
Chronic Disease: Exacerbating the Pandemic
- The upcoming week is projected to witness a sharp acceleration in COVID-19 transmission rates, accompanied by a "huge" wave of morbidity and mortality from delayed primary and secondary care for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
- CVS Health is launching a "Time for Care" initiative immediately to mobilize communities around preventative care and dispel fear-driven avoidance of necessary medical treatment.
- Life insurance providers plan to shift from reactive claims processing to proactive engagement, offering customers incentives like $5 to $10 rewards for healthy behaviors including doctor visits, healthy food purchases, and mobile workouts via an app that could increase interaction frequency to approximately 40 times monthly.
- Uncontrolled diabetes carries a fatality rate of roughly 11%, significantly higher than the 1% rate for controlled cases, while the current shelter-in-place environment has disrupted chronic disease routines, negatively affecting diet and exercise.
- Telemedicine adoption has compressed 10 years of growth into 10 weeks, with usage expected to persist post-pandemic to serve rural and urban communities, though 911 calls in cities like Chicago and New York have dropped by approximately 30% due to fear-induced avoidance of emergency care for conditions like chest pain and appendicitis.
- Economic uncertainty is expected to hit vulnerable communities hardest, with roughly one-third of U.S. jobs exposed to reduced hours or closures, 80% of which earn under $40,000 annually, creating a long-term risk for millions facing joblessness tied to chronic diseases.
- Poor health is predicted to reduce global GDP by 15% annually, prompting a shift where health becomes a core economic consideration for recovery and growth rather than solely a pandemic response.
- Digital solutions including telehealth, self-care, and real-time data are anticipated to scale dramatically, with personal health technology catching up to industrial sensor density, though underreporting of chronic condition deaths may continue to build.
- CVS Health intends to evolve the testing apparatus to better target minority communities, noting that vast majority of current retail testing originates in high social vulnerability indices, while acknowledging that infant mortality statistics between Black communities and the general population have remained relatively constant since 1985-1986.
- Experts warn that extreme fear has already led to significant delays in seeking treatment for symptoms, with the expectation that the industry must transition from a "culture of fear" to one of empowerment to ensure long-term resilience and equity.
- The industry aims to transform communities through shared responsibility from grassroots to leadership levels, promoting mask-wearing and physical distancing as acts of kindness and urging that 70% of health improvements occur before clinical visits.