More hospital and outpatient visits expected to persist through fall and winter

Health care providers and health insurance companies are closing the books on their third quarters, and one major question continues to hang over them: How much care is everyone actually getting, now that Covid-19 isn’t scaring so many away from doctors and hospitals?

The short answer, according to financial analysts and the companies themselves: It appears people continue to fill prescriptions, see their doctors, and get recommended surgeries.

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For health insurers, those trends mean they will have to deposit more money into the bank accounts of providers — perhaps more than they predicted.

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