Hazmat crew decontaminating the apartment in Dallas where Thomas Eric Duncan stayed. JIM YOUNG/Reuters/Corbis
The death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, leaves America's health care infrastructure shaken but resolute to be prepared to swiftly recognize, contain and treat a virus with no known cure.
That's a tall order for any health care system, especially a private-market one like ours that, until recently, has had limited incentive for everyone to play well together.
Don't misunderstand: We manage to get the job done hospital to hospital and physician to physician. It's just that the sheer multitude of proprietary medical communications channels and software can make presenting a united front for something like Ebola a logistical nightmare.
The Centers for Disease Control -- and let's be sure to tack on its last name, "and Prevention," in this context -- knows well what it's up against here and has been working around the clock to prepare Main Street health care for what has the potential to be the Godzilla bug of our day.
The CDC's Health Alert Network, which keeps providers up to date and on the same page, has been stuffed with briefings, guidelines and protocols to keep everyone from 911 operators and emergency room docs to EMS crews and front desk staff apprised on how to corral this monster should it saunter into their town. The CDC now even offers a weekly course to clinicians on safety and infection control.
The agency also has closed ranks with the Department of Homeland Security to enhance security screening for Ebola at the five U.S. airports that receive 94 percent of the inbound traffic from the west African nations hardest hit by the virus. The five international hubs include:
One also can easily imagine the board meetings being hastily called at hospitals, physician groups and, yes, health insurance companies that will ultimately be called upon to settle the monetary bills to fight this mortal threat. The cost to care for Duncan, an uninsured Liberian, ran in the neighborhood of $500,000. Suffice to say, that's a very uncomfortable neighborhood if you're a health insurance company.
While specialty-lines insurers have offered group coverage to non-governmental humanitarian organizations such as Doctors Without Borders that cover all diseases, including Ebola, claims have been relatively few. That said, the cost of the experimental drugs that were used to treat American volunteers Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol typically would not be covered.
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