Dive Brief:
- With hospitals on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak, three groups are working together to offer an insurance product protecting hospitals from loss of profit due to an Ebola quarantine shutdown and potential revenue lost after a quarantine. The trio that created the insurance are Lloyd's of London underwriter Ark Syndicate, Miller Insurance Services LLP and US broker William Gallagher Associates.
- This is the first time such a policy has been used. Underwriting began on the product on Friday. According to an article in Reuters, US hospitals have been seeking such a product. Broker Aon plc also told the publication they have created a task force that is monitoring the outbreak and working with clients to prepare for issues like risk and human capital issues.
- Health officials are monitoring 16 people in Ohio who were in close contact with the infected nurse from Texas, Amber Joy Vinson. More than 4,500 people have died from Ebola, which has infected 9,191 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. According to the World Health Organization, 239 health workers have died from the disease.
Dive Insight:
"The healthcare industry is at the forefront on the Ebola situation and faces a unique and augmented set of risk exposures," Gigi Norris, managing director of Aon Risk Solutions' healthcare practice, told Reuters. Only one of these risks is cost.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg News, the care of Thomas Eric Duncan—not an American citizen and not insured—likely cost upward of half a million dollars. Ebola care was estimated to cost $1,000 an hour because of the heightened intensive care costs of isolation, time-consuming protocols required for isolation and disposal of gear and patient waste. It is still not known how Duncan's care will be paid for or if the hospital will have to write it off as charity care.