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A Weekly Health Policy Round Up From Health Affairs
April 5, 2020
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THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG
The COVID-19 Pandemic: Practice And Policy Considerations For Patients With Opioid Use Disorder
By Kelsey C. Priest (4/3/20)
Structural barriers to care for people with opioid use disorder abound, and the
COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates issues of access and safety for patients with this condition.
Read More >>
Equitable Access To Health Information For Non-English Speakers Amidst The Novel Coronavirus Pandemic
By David Velasquez, Nishant Uppal, and Numa Perez (4/2/20)
Past pandemics have taught us that inadequately disseminating health information to people with limited English proficiency magnifies health disparities, and there are early warning signs that a similar trend is recurring with COVID-19. Read More >>
Keeping Surprise Billing Out Of Coronavirus Treatment
By Jack Hoadley, Kevin Lucia, and Katie Keith (4/2/20)
A short-term payment standard, combined with meaningful consumer protections from surprise medical bills, could provide significant financial relief to individuals and families affected by the coronavirus. Read More
>>
Five Things State Medicaid Agencies Should Do Now To Improve Care For Pregnant And Postpartum Women Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic
By Emily Eckert and Meredith Yinger (4/2/20)
As the United States continues to respond to this pandemic, it is important that each state consider the unique coverage and access needs of low-income women, especially in the perinatal period. Read More >>
Using Federal Reinsurance To Address The Health Care Financial Consequences Of COVID-19
By Sherry Glied and
Katherine Swartz (4/1/20)
While the recent CARES legislation, which allocates about $100 billion toward the hospital sector, will help pay for essential equipment and increase Medicare payments for COVID-19 care by 20 percent, additional steps will be needed to protect patients and providers against the health care–related financial consequences of the epidemic. Read More >>
Getting Ahead Of COVID-19 Issues: Dying From Respiratory Failure Out Of The Hospital
By Joanne Lynn (4/1/20)
When a person is likely to die if he or she gets this disease, we should be clear about what treatment the person wants. Read More >>
Implement Critical Care Surge Strategies Now To Save Lives
By Mahshid Abir, Kaitlyn Entel, and Christopher Nelson (4/1/20)
Coordinating actions across state and federal governments and across public and private spheres, and implementing creative strategies now and in the coming weeks, could improve hospital readiness and, ultimately, save lives. Read More >>
Native American Communities And COVID-19: How Foundations Can Help
By Heidi A. Schultz (4/1/20)
The outlook for an effective and comprehensive response to the COVID-19 outbreak among American Indians
and Alaska Natives is bleak. As of March 29, 2020, 165 Natives had tested positive for COVID-19. The author, who works for the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, enumerates a number of ways that foundations can help this population. Read More >>
‘Panic Prescribing’
Untested Coronavirus Treatments: A Danger To Patients Today And Tomorrow
By Holly Fernandez Lynch, Alison Bateman-House, and Arthur L. Caplan (3/31/20)
No matter how much we might want a COVID-19 treatment now, we don’t yet have anything that has demonstrated safety and efficacy in any sort of reliable study. Broadly unleashing every concoction that has a glimmer of positive data, no matter how slim, on the COVID-19 patient population will dangerously inhibit that goal. Read More
>>
‘The Future Is Today’: Medical Students In The COVID-19 Pandemic
By Andrew Blake (3/31/20)
If COVID-19 overwhelms our health care system’s capacity to provide excellent patient care, medical students should have the opportunity to help their future colleagues in this fight. Read More >>
There Are Not Nearly Enough Nurses To Handle The Surge Of Coronavirus Patients: Here’s How To Close The Gap Quickly
By Joanne Spetz (3/31/20)
With most states operating under a state of emergency, governors have wide-reaching latitude, and many
have already issued orders aimed at expanding the health care workforce during the pandemic. Read More >>
Ensuring COVID-19 Vaccine Affordability: Existing Mechanisms Should Not Be Overlooked
By Richard Hughes IV, Kelly Cappio, and Alessandra Fix (3/30/20)
As the country grapples with the challenges presented by the coronavirus, policy makers should remain mindful of existing mechanisms that provide widespread access to affordable vaccines. Read More >>
FOLLOWING THE ACA
Final Marketplace Enrollment Data For 2020
By Katie Keith (4/2/20)
On April 1, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the Marketplace open enrollment report for 2020. Read More >>
PRIMARY CARE
Realizing The Vision Of Advanced Primary Care: Confronting Financial Barriers To Expanding The Model Nationwide
By JP Sharp, Leslie McKinney, Scott Heiser, and Rahul Rajkumar (3/30/20)
We need solutions that achieve better health outcomes with fewer resources by loosening the reliance on physical infrastructure and
using innovative approaches to staffing, technology, and administration that are adaptable for the specific needs of each population.
Read More >>
MEDICAID
Alternative Drug Purchasing Arrangements Do Not Justify Raising The Prices Medicaid Pays For Brand Drugs
By Edwin Park and Andrea Noda (4/3/20)
Drug manufacturers and some federal policy makers support statutory modifications to the best-price requirement that they believe will increase uptake of alternative purchasing arrangements. Such modifications, however, could sharply increase federal and state Medicaid drug costs and lead to harmful Medicaid cuts that reduce access to needed care for the tens of millions of low-income people who rely on Medicaid. Read More >>
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IN THE JOURNAL
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
State Politics And The Uneven Fate Of Medicaid Expansion
By Philip Rocco, Ann C. Keller, and Andrew S. Kelly
Philip Rocco and coauthors look at how state-level politics affected adoption of the Medicaid expansion. Read More >>
Health Insurance Coverage: What Comes After The ACA?
By Benjamin D. Sommers
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) led to the largest expansion of health insurance in the US in fifty years, bringing the uninsurance rate in 2016 to its lowest recorded level. But even at that point, nearly thirty million people lacked health insurance, and millions more still struggled to afford needed medical care. Benjamin Sommers identifies the underlying causes of these problems and
evaluates potential policy remedies. Read More >>
The ACA’s Effect On The Individual Insurance Market
By Sabrina Corlette,
Linda J. Blumberg, and Kevin Lucia
Sabrina Corlette and colleagues, who note that "a key element of the strategy of the [Affordable Care Act] to expand coverage was to fix flaws in the individual market that made it difficult for people with health problems to obtain adequate, affordable insurance," describe the significant transformation of this market. Read More >>
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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.
Copyright © Project HOPE: The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
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