Steven Duque

ALT Learn more at pearlhealth.com

ALT Starting in March of 2020, healthcare practices began to see the profound impact of COVID. As the pandemic forced quarantines, lockdowns, and isolation, providers saw an immediate decline in patient visits for elective and routine medical care, and therefore a corresponding drop in revenues. In-person patient visits were redistributed to emergency rooms and hospitals, if needed. Less emergent cases were likely to go untreated as patients simply waited for a safer environment in which they could access care. At the same time, many healthcare workers were suddenly burdened by COVID-related care, while many others felt the financial crunch of an empty office. In a fee-for-service model, no patients in the office means no revenue. The pandemic served as a wake-up call to many providers by demonstrating the structural vulnerabilities to fee-for-service models. While such reimbursement mechanisms have been traditionally conceived as risk averse, every revenue stream is ultimately exposed t