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Blue Cross CEO says there will be lost medical care, but sees mental health access improving

Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Curtis Barnett said his organization had a pandemic disaster blueprint mapped out in advance of the COVID-19 wave.
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Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Curtis Barnett said his organization had a pandemic disaster blueprint mapped out in advance of the COVID-19 wave that hit Arkansas beginning in March, but planning your plan and executing your plan are two different things.

“Having a pandemic plan and actually living and working through a pandemic plan are two very different things,” Barnett said in an exclusive Talk Business & Politics interview. “Kind of like when you take the driver’s test…having the pandemic plan is kind of like doing the written part of the test, and then when you’re actually going through it, it’s more like the driving part of that.”

Barnett lauded the preparation of Arkansas’ overall health care community, which concentrated efforts on making sure the state’s hospitals and medical community could cope with a massive caseload on the system. The effect from that singular effort for preparation resulted in weeks of deferred care, which is unlikely to all return.

To read more about this story please visit our content partner Talk Business & Politics.

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