Coronavirus live updates, April 22: Uncertainty remains on impact on health care premiums

Apr. 22--Here's the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the Detroit area and around Michigan.

What you need to know

-- Tracking the pandemic: Map, graphs of coronavirus cases in Michigan

-- COVID-19: Symptoms to look for, how to get help

-- Where to get free food in metro Detroit

-- Coronavirus and mental health: How to cope during the crisis

-- How to apply for unemployment if you get laid off

-- How you can help others -- Here's who is hiring

-- How to keep your groceries, produce clean and safe

-- COVID-19 contact tracing: How it works

Coronavirus could mean temporary windfall for health insurers in Michigan

The coronavirus crisis in Michigan could mean a temporary financial windfall for health insurance companies for the same reasons some hospitals in the state are doing mass layoffs.

But don't expect health insurers to follow the lead of auto insurers and give consumer rebates this spring, as they may eventually face a surge of delayed visits and claims from patients with conditions other than COVID-19.

The pandemic has forced hospitals to cancel nonemergency visits and elective surgeries to ensure that they have capacity for coronavirus patients.

Those routine visits and procedures, such as knee and hip replacements, are big moneymakers for hospitals, and their cancelation has resulted in a drop in revenue and patient volume -- even as some hospitals in southeast Michigan accommodated a deluge of coronavirus patients.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the state's largest health insurer, said in a statement Tuesday that there is still a high amount of uncertainty about the potential cost impact of the coronavirus crisis and its ultimate effect on insurance premiums. Its actuaries are considering many different scenarios.

Beaumont CEO says he's taking a 70% pay cut as layoffs sweep through administrative staff

With Michigan's largest hospital system "financially hemorrhaging" and under a cloud of uncertainty for at least the next two years, the CEO of Beaumont Health says he's taking a 70% cut to his base pay and is forgoing any bonuses.

John Fox's total compensation in 2018 was $5.9 million, including base pay of nearly $1.85 million, a bonus of $1.6 million, $810,000 in other compensation, and retirement and deferred compensation of $1.66 million, according to Beaumont's most recent returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Fox's cut in pay is the steepest percentage cut among the hospital systems in the region that have disclosed CEO pay reductions. The CEO of the Detroit Medical Center is taking a 10% cut, while the chief at Michigan Medicine is taking a 5% cut.

Tiny Rochester Hills car company makes a big bet on hand sanitizer

For a tiny auto supplier in Rochester Hills, a late-night idea has turned into a lucrative new product line.

Plymouth Technology makes chemicals to treat the wastewater at the Detroit Three's factories, so when the Detroit automakers idled their assembly plants in mid-March because of coronavirus, Plymouth Technology sputtered to a stop, too.

Most of the 25 employees there were furloughed, then CEO Amanda Richie, her husband, their five kids and some friends had an idea.

The idea was: learn how to make hand sanitizer.

The demand for Havaclean, the name of Plymouth Technology's product, is so strong that Richie is making it a permanent product saying it promises a profitable future.

Contract worker at GM subsidiary says he was fired for raising coronavirus concerns

Before Michigan's stay-at-home order was in effect last month, the coronavirus was already on Travis Watkins' mind.

The mechanic and union bargaining chair at the GM Components Holdings plant in Wyoming, near Grand Rapids, said he was raising the alarm that some workers might be sick.

Two days later, the father of two was out of a job, dismissed, he said, because he raised those concerns about the potential presence of a disease that has now led to the closure of auto plants and more than 40,000 deaths across the country, and upended life for most Americans.

-- Do you work in a nursing home or senior center affected by the coronavirus? Have you or your family personally been affected? We'd like to talk to you. Please email Chris Hall at [email protected] or send secure (encrypted) email to [email protected].

-- Are you a health care worker concerned about personal protective equipment (PPE) or other issues during the coronavirus outbreak? We'd like to talk to you. Email Kristen Shamus@KristenShamus at [email protected] or by secure (encrypted) email at [email protected].

-- Do you have a family member or close friend who has died from COVID-19? We would like honor them. Please contact Georgea Kovanis at [email protected] to share their story.

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