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Anthem to Remove Costs Related to Coronavirus Treatment

Anthem, Inc. ANTM decided to eliminate certain ‘out-of-pocket’ costs required for the treatment of its clients, who are severely infected by the coronavirus. The action will extend until May 31 of this year. Enrollees ofaffiliated health plan fully insured, Individual, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage are likely to benefit from this initiative.

Notably, the United States has been intensely hit by the pandemic and the situation seems to deteriorate with every passing day. With more than 216,500 residents being infected in the United States to date, the cases of reported fatalities have crossed more than 5,100.

Along with its latest decision to relieve members from the cost share required for the COVID-19 treatment process, Anthem has come forward to meet the emergency health requirements of its Medicare members after they get discharged from hospitals.

Moreover, the healthcare provider has been undertaking several initiatives to contain the coronavirus spread, since the beginning of March. For its affiliated health plans’ members, the company had previously eliminated all supplementary costs, pertaining to the early diagnosis of the COVID-19. Anthem has also urged its members to increasingly adopt its telehealth services offered by LiveHealth Online. Along with containing the virus spread, such policies facilitate easy communication between clients sitting at home and their healthcare providers.

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In addition to the aforementioned initiatives, the company relaxed certain administrative burdens for patient transfers and use of medical equipment critical to the COVID-19 treatment. Such initiatives undertaken by Anthem during the pandemic are likely to relieve its members from financial burden and provide them with a hassle-free process of availing medical help as and when required.

Two of its industry peers, Cigna Corporation CI and Humana Inc. HUM have also decided to eliminate additional costs related to the COVID-19 treatment process. With the pandemic, we expect other leading healthcare providers in the United States to adopt similar steps.

However, shares of Anthem, which currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), have lost 25.7% in a year compared with its industry fall of 1%. Nevertheless, we believe that Anthem’s strong fundamentals are likely to drive its shares going forward.You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Notably, another company in the medical space, namely Magellan Health, Inc. MGLN has enhanced telehealth services via video calls.

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Click to get this free report Humana Inc. (HUM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cigna Corporation (CI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Magellan Health, Inc. (MGLN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Anthem, Inc. (ANTM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research