Impact of public and private sector COVID-19 diagnostics and treatments on US healthcare resource utilization

Abstract

IntroductionCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has imposed a considerable burden on the United States (US) health system, with particular concern over healthcare capacity constraints.MethodsWe modeled the impact of public and private sector contributions to developing diagnostic testing and treatments on COVID-19-related healthcare resource use.ResultsWe estimated that public sector contributions lead to ≥30% reductions in COVID-19-related healthcare resource utilization. Private sector contributions to expanded diagnostic testing and treatments lead to further reductions in mortality (−44%), intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU hospital beds (−30% and −28%, respectively), and ventilator use (−29%). The combination of lower diagnostic test sensitivity and proportions of patients self-isolating may exacerbate case numbers, and policies that encourage self-isolating should be considered.ConclusionWhile mechanisms exist to facilitate research, development, and patient access to diagnostic testing, future policies should focus on ensuring equitable patient access to both diagnostic testing and treatments which, in turn, will alleviate COVID-19-related resource constraints.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Molecular Diagnostics

“…Typically, 1-2 days pass before individuals present for testing, followed by 2-5 days for testing to be completed in a central laboratory and results returned. This compares with the estimate that each day delay in COVID-19 test results in presence of fully functioning contact tracing, increases cumulative disease incidence by 28% and resource utilization by 33% [1]. It is worthwhile reflecting on this deficiency, its massive costs, and potential solutions.…”

“…The contributions of molecular diagnostics to COVID-19 assessment toward reduction of morbidity and mortality are widely recognized [1][2][3]. Still, the inevitable false negative rates have contributed to a substantial increase in cases as did delays in turn around time test reporting [1].…”