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HEALTH AFFAIRS EVENTS–The Affordable Care Act Turns 10

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Tuesday, March 10, 2020
9:00 am – 1:00 pm Eastern
W Hotel Washington – 515 15th Street NW, Washington DC 20004
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The March 2020 issue of Health Affairs, “The Affordable Care Act Turns 10,” offers must-read analyses of the ACA. Authors explain the law’s effects on coverage, cost, health status, and more. They also review the political and legal issues that have shaped implementation and consider what should come next. On March 10, Health Affairs will host a special event to amplify the work.

Please join us for a special briefing when panels of authors and other experts will present their work and participate in a robust discussion of the topic including members of the audience.

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THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

FOLLOWING THE ACA

ACA Guidance Round-Up: Draft Letter To Issuers, QHP Compliance Report, HRAs, And More
By Katie Keith (2/12/20)

On January 31, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed 2021 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters rule. In conjunction with the proposed rule, CMS released additional documents including the 2021 draft letter to issuers in the federal marketplace. CMS also released guidance for states on the use of excepted benefits health reimbursement arrangements, a summary report on qualified health plan compliance, and new frequently asked questions on the Summary of Benefits and Coverage. This post summarizes these documents. Read More >>

New Lawsuits Challenge Abortion Policy, AHP Advisory Opinion
By Katie Keith (2/10/20)

Regular readers are familiar with the heaps of litigation over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and efforts by the Trump administration to undermine the ACA. This post introduces two new lawsuits to the mix, both related to recently finalized rules from the Trump administration.
Read More >>

COSTS & SPENDING

Prices Drove Spending Growth: Trends In Employer-Sponsored Insurance Costs, 2014-2018
By Niall Brennan, Jean Fuglesten Biniek, and John Hargraves

The latest annual report from the Health Care Cost Institute shows that average health care spending climbed to an all-time high in 2018 of $5,892 per person for individuals with health insurance coverage through an employer. That amounts to an average annual growth rate of 4.3 percent between 2014 and 2018. Read More >>

HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ONC Should Not Delay The Release Of Its Rule
By Lucia C. Savage, Aaron Neinstein, Mark Savage, and Julia Adler-Milstein (2/10/20)

Stakeholders such as electronic health record vendors, providers, and app developers must do their part and act in the spirit of the new regulations, not lobby against them, and give Americans what they deserve: the ability to have their data move to where it is needed. Read More >>

PAYMENT

The Center For Medicare And Medicaid Innovation Can Be A Powerful Force To Accelerate Change, But Not Without Key Reforms
By Jeff Micklos, Clare Pierce-Wrobel, and Joshua Traylor (2/12/20)

Vanguard organizations that committed to the value-based payment mission from the outset have learned much in their journeys. The Innovation Center should focus new efforts on enticing those providers still clutching onto fee-for-service for dear life to join the effort.
Read More >

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CARE

Battling The Mental Health Crisis Among The Underserved Through State Medicaid Reforms
By James Maxwell, Angel Bourgoin, and Zoe Lindenfeld (2/10/20)

State policy makers should use all available policy levers to advance access and prevent the devastating and often tragic consequences that these unmet mental health and substance use disorder needs can have on the lives of individuals and families. Read More >>

MEDICARE

CMS Releases Advance Notice For Medicare Advantage And Part D Plans
By Billy Wynne and Josh LaRosa (2/10/20)

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released Part II of its Advance Notice of Methodological Changes for Medicare Advantage (MA) Capitation Rates and Part D Payment Policies for Calendar Year (CY) 2021 and its proposed rule on policy and technical changes to MA and Part D for CYs 2021 and 2022. This post focuses on summarizing the Advance Notice component of this package of policies. Read More >>

QUALITY OF CARE

Cold Water Or Rocket Fuel? Lessons From The Camden “Hot-Spotting” Randomized Controlled Trial
By Eric C. Schneider and Tanya B. Shah (2/11/20)

Built on the logic that a fairly small number of individuals have disproportionately high health care costs because they use more emergency and hospital care, the Camden Coalition designed and implemented an intuitively appealing intervention: intensive case management to achieve better coordination of care and remedy the unmet social, medical, and emotional needs that can drive a revolving door of emergency care visits. Read More >>

DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

Don’t Throw Cold Water On Health Care’s Hot Spotters
By Shreya Kangovi and David Grande (2/11/20)

The Camden Coalition program was at the forefront of the modern movement to link social interventions to health care delivery. Read More >>

GLOBAL HEALTH

Novel Coronavirus Should Prompt Examination Of Impact Of Outbreaks On Health Care Workers
By Nakisa B. Sadeghi and Leana S. Wen (2/14/20)

Health care workers are on the front lines of epidemics, where they care for patients affected by the disease in question. This blog will discuss the impact of infectious disease outbreaks on health care workers and strategies for building a robust health workforce that is equipped to respond to health crises. Read More >>

MATERNAL & CHILD HEALTH

Revisiting CHIP Buy-In Programs For Children
By Megan McCarthy-Alfano, Janet Weiner, Amaya Diana, Elizabeth Hagan, and Kristin Wikelius (2/14/20)

Properly designed, targeted, and marketed, buy-in programs could be a cost-effective way of moving toward universal coverage for children. Read More >>

COSTS & SPENDING

Prices Drove Spending Growth: Trends In Employer-Sponsored Insurance Costs, 2014-2018
By Niall Brennan, Jean Fuglesten Biniek, and John Hargraves (2/13/20)

The latest annual report from the Health Care Cost Institute shows that average health care spending climbed to an all-time high in 2018 of $5,892 per person for individuals with health insurance coverage through an employer. That amounts to an average annual growth rate of 4.3 percent between 2014 and 2018. Read More >>

PHARMACEUTICALS AND MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

The Grass Is The Same Colour, Part II: Prescription Drug Woes On Both Sides Of The US-Canada Border
By Oliver Kim (2/13/20)

There are many lessons—both in terms of politics and policy—that Canadians can learn from mistakes and successes associated with enactment of Medicare Part D, the ACA, and other federal programs in the US. Read More >>

PUBLIC OPINION

FORESIGHT: How Good Could Our Health Be In The Future If We Start Shaping It Differently Now?
By Raymond Baxter and Laura Landy (2/13/20)

The three-year FORESIGHT initiative, supported by 17 foundations, seeks new ways to look at the future of health. It is combining information about both current trends already having an impact and emerging issues, with insights into what people and communities—in several localities around the country—need and want. FORESIGHT leaders envision that the initiative will point to new ways to create equitable and sustainable systems for health. Read More >>

IN THE JOURNAL

NURSES

Implications Of The Rapid Growth Of The Nurse Practitioner Workforce In The US
By David I. Auerbach, Peter I. Buerhaus, and Douglas O. Staiger

According to David Auerbach and coauthors, an important recent development in the US nursing workforce is the dramatic increase in the number of advanced practice registered nurses (RNs), particularly those who are prepared as nurse practitioners (NPs), with higher earning potential. The authors examined data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for the period 2010–17 and found that during that time the number of NPs in the US rose from approximately 91,000 to 190,000. Read More >>

POLITICS

Guns In Political Advertising Over Four US Election Cycles, 2012–18
By Colleen L. Barry, Sachini Bandara, Erika Franklin Fowler, Laura Baum, Sarah E. Gollust, Jeff Niederdeppe, and Alene Kennedy Hendricks

Colleen Barry and coauthors analyzed data on more than fourteen million candidate-related television advertisement airings for national and state races for political office in the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 election cycles. Read More >>

PHARMACEUTICALS & MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Non-Infection-Related And Non-Visit-Based Antibiotic Prescribing Is Common Among Medicaid Patients
By Michael A. Fischer, Mufaddal Mahesri, Joyce Lii, and Jeffrey A. Linder

Amid growing concern about antibiotic overuse, which can contribute to resistance, Michael Fischer and colleagues use Medicaid claims data to explore inappropriate prescribing behavior. They find that “28 percent [of antibiotic prescriptions] were not associated with a recent [clinician] visit, and another 17 percent were dispensed without evidence of a visit that had an infection-related diagnosis.” Read More >>

DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

Renovating Subsidized Housing: The Impact On Tenants’ Health
By Ingrid Gould Ellen, Kacie L. Dragan, and Sherry Glied

Many public and subsidized housing developments in the US are aging and in need of significant repairs. Ingrid Gould Ellen and coauthors evaluated a recent renovation of public housing that was undertaken through the transfer of six housing developments from the New York City Housing Authority to a public-private partnership to see whether the renovation and transfer to private managers led to improvements in tenants’ health over three years, as measured by Medicaid claims. Read More >>

MATERNAL & CHILD HEALTH

Five-Year Outcomes Among Medicaid-Enrolled Children With In Utero Opioid Exposure
By Marian P. Jarlenski, Elizabeth E. Krans, Joo Yeon Kim, Julie M. Donohue, A. Everette JamesIII, David Kelley, Bradley D. Stein, and Debra L. Bogen

Marian Jarlenski and colleagues examine outcomes among Medicaid-enrolled children in Pennsylvania exposed to opioids in utero, born in the period 2008–11 and followed up for five years. By age five, with the exception of neonatal conditions, children exposed to either opioids or tobacco or not exposed to either had similar rates of pediatric complex chronic conditions, when maternal and child risk factors were controlled for. Read More >>

HEALTH AFFAIRS REQUEST FOR ABSTRACTS—Climate and Health

Health Affairs is planning a theme issue on climate and health, to be published in December 2020. We thank the Kresge Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for their generous support of this issue.

We primarily seek empirical work—original research, systematic reviews, well-designed case studies—that presents evidence and analysis aimed at contributing to our knowledge. Papers should have a strong policy orientation, and we will put a premium on work that supports future planning and decision making. We are interested in reports of successful and failed initiatives and will also consider a small number of commentaries and overview papers to supplement the empirical work and provide context.

Deadline: February 24, 2020
Preparation and formatting guidelines
Submit abstracts via our online submission form

Queries: [email protected]

About Health Affairs

Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.

Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.

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