The Connection
A roundup of recent Fund publications, charts, multimedia, and other timely content.
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January 22, 2024
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Partnering to Improve Community Health
The COVID-19 pandemic showed that when faced with a crisis, public health and health care system leaders can unite behind a shared mission. On To the Point, Katie Greene and colleagues explore how public health and health care systems are applying lessons from the pandemic to form innovative partnerships for improving health at the population, community, and individual levels. Effective communication and coordination will be crucial to success, the authors say.
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Herring Fishing and Health Policy
How could a Supreme Court ruling on regulation of the herring fishing industry affect health policy? George Washington University’s Sara Rosenbaum explains that while the case centers on who is responsible for paying federal inspectors on herring boats, the decision will have broader implications for how much leeway the Court will give federal agencies to adopt particular policies. Many major federal health policies are found in the rules that interpret and apply the laws, rather than the laws themselves, making this decision critical.
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FEATURED CHART
Accessing Hospital Financial Assistance Programs
Despite federal and state laws designed to protect patients from medical debt, many Americans — even those with insurance — are still left with significant gaps in care and coverage. Federal law requires nonprofit hospitals to have financial assistance policies in place, but states have flexibility in how much help hospitals provide, and to whom. On To the Point, Georgetown University’s Maanasa Kona discusses how states can make hospital financial assistance programs more accessible and more effective by removing barriers to applying for aid.
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Türkiye’s Family Medicine Program and Primary Care
In 2003, Türkiye overhauled its primary care system as a part of a broader effort to achieve universal health care access. After 10 years, the government’s family medicine program has helped most of the nation’s 85 million people gain access to primary care services. In our latest installment of International Insights, the Commonwealth Fund’s Evan Gumas looks at what the United States can learn from Türkiye’s initiative.
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Health Care Legislative and Regulatory Activity in 2024
Time is running out for Congress to advance meaningful health initiatives. The deadlines for fiscal year 2024 spending bills are fast approaching, and the Biden administration must enact its regulatory agenda. Alyssa Llamas, Lena Marceno, and Lauren Testa of Impact Health Policy Partners outline key issues to watch: reining in prescription drug costs, maintaining telehealth in Medicare, bolstering the behavioral health workforce pipeline, improving health care affordability, and expanding access to care.
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Preventing Administrative Disenrollment in Medicaid
KFF Health News reported recently that 60 percent of people who were dropped from the Utah’s Medicaid program after the state reevaluated their eligibility did not renew their coverage ([link removed] ) . Many cited the difficulty of navigating paperwork as the reason. Commonwealth Fund researchers have highlighted strategies that federally qualified health centers have pursued to prevent disenrollments during the Medicaid redetermination process ([link removed] ) .
Collaborative Investing in Drivers of Health
Communities across the United States are looking for ways to reduce health inequities. Improving the social drivers of health is one pathway. A recent Health Affairs article by New York University’s Lauren Taylor and the Urban Institute’s Len Nichols describes a financing model for incentivizing and coordinating investments in drivers of health among local stakeholders. The authors note the model’s evolution in practice and identify common themes relevant to any community trying to increase local investments in health.
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Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.
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