Long COVID is a bummer. Even mild infections of the coronavirus are leading to weeks and months of lingering symptoms such as loss of smell, confusion due to mental brain fog, and fatigue.
But severe outcomes, such as heart disorders and kidney disease, are appearing, sometimes well after people have recovered. Vaccines appear to waylay some of the ill effects, but large-scale studies are finding in inoculated people with “post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection” or PASC.
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“Insurance companies will sometimes disallow certain costs as not medically necessary, particularly in situations where there is that kind of gray area about medical necessity,” said Joel Cantor, director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University, told Gothamist. “That’s an ongoing challenge, particularly for folks who have multiple symptoms.”
Medical necessity is initially judged by a person’s physician, and doctors need to document the conditions correctly in order for patients to receive insurance coverage.