COVID-19 patients hospitalized in 2021 could be on the hook for thousands of dollars in bills for hospital, physician, and paramedic care after insurance companies started charging members for these costs again, an analysis of 2020 US data today in JAMA Network Open suggests.In 2020, most health insurers voluntarily waived copays, deductibles, and other cost sharing for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but many did away with those waivers in early 2021.The authors published an earlier version of the study on the medRxiv preprint server on May 30, 2021; since then, a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis has shown that 72% of the two largest insurers in each state and Washington, DC (102 plans total) ended their waivers by August.