FAST TRACK AHEAD OF PRINT

Thousands Of Lives Could Be Saved In The US During The COVID-19 Pandemic If States Exchanged Ventilators
By Daniel Adelman

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, concerns have been raised about a nationwide shortage of mechanical ventilators, a necessary element in saving lives. With the peak number of COVID-19 cases varying by state, there have already been voluntary exchange efforts to make ventilators available when and where they are needed most. Daniel Adelman assesses the benefits of a potential nationwide logistical operation, to be organized and administered by the US military. Read More >>

THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

COVID-19

The COVID-19 Pandemic And Rural Hospitals—Adding Insult To Injury
By Adrian Diaz, Karan Chhabra, and John Scott (5/3/20)

Amidst turbulent times, not only do we have the opportunity to use rural hospitals to help end this pandemic, but we can also financially secure the backbone of health care delivery for the 20 percent of Americans who receive care at rural hospitals. Read More >>

State Strategies For Helping Individuals With Opioid Use Disorder Through The COVID-19 Epidemic
By Jocelyn Guyer and Karen Scott (5/2/20)

In the days and weeks ahead, it will be critical for more states to dedicate attention and resources to the needs of this particularly vulnerable population, not just by updating their policies, but also by providing frontline providers and consumers with clear, authoritative information on their options during the crisis. Read More >>

Protecting Incarcerated People In The Face Of COVID-19: A Health And Human Rights Perspective
By Donald M. Berwick, Leanne Gale, Faith Barksdale, and Megan Hauptman (5/1/20)

Reports are proliferating of incarcerated individuals and staff members in detention facilities testing positive for COVID-19, and these cases are likely to increase exponentially unless immediate action is taken. We must do everything we can to preserve the health, dignity, and human rights of incarcerated people before it’s too late. Read More >>

The Harm Of A Colorblind Allocation Of Scarce Resources
By Nathan T. Chomilo, Nia Heard-Garris, Malini DeSilva, and Uché Blackstock (4/30/20)

To achieve equitable access to and distribution of care, critical race theory must be a part of the process utilized to create broad, population-focused guidelines. This is particularly true in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is stressing both our health care system and society. Read More >>

In Case Parenting Wasn’t Hard Enough...Here Comes Coronavirus: How One Health System Offers Support
By Rob Lott (4/30/20)

Since 2015, Parent Connext has embedded "parenting specialists"—experienced counselors—within the offices of a Cincinnati health system’s pediatrics practices. We spoke to the program’s director about how it's helping families cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Read More >>

Congress Left Big Gaps In The Paid Sick Days And Paid Leave Provisions Of The Coronavirus Emergency Legislation
By Steven Findlay (4/29/20)

In their understandable rush to respond to the crisis, lawmakers created access to paid sick days and paid leave which is profoundly unfair—with arbitrary limits and winners and losers.
Read More >>

How California Counties’ COVID-19 Response Benefited From The "Whole Person Care" Program
By Nadereh Pourat, Emmeline Chuang, and Leigh Ann Haley (4/28/20)

In our April 2020 Health Affairs article, "Integrating Health And Human Services In California’s Whole Person Care Medicaid 1115 Waiver Demonstration," we describe an ambitious program implemented through 25 pilots in 26 California counties to address the medical and social service needs of the most vulnerable and highest-utilizing Medicaid beneficiaries, such as those experiencing homelessness. In April 2020, we asked those pilots to describe whether and how they used Whole Person Care (WPC) partnerships and infrastructure to respond to COVID-19 and whether the pandemic affected WPC implementation.
Read More >>

Stop Using The Term "Social Distancing"—Start Talking About "Physical Distancing, Social Connection"
By Harris Allen, Brent Ling, and Wayne Burton (4/27/20)

We urge governmental leaders at all levels to present guidelines for interpersonal distance in all public communications going forward as "physical distancing, social connection."
Read More >>

Putting A Stake Through The Heart of Public Health’s Eeyore Complex
By Tom Frieden (4/27/20)

Politicians ignore a public health approach to the coronavirus at their own peril—and at the peril of their people. The world depends on public health to prevent COVID-19 infections and deaths, as well as to minimize social and economic disruption. Read More >>

HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

How AI Will Change the Regulation and Organization of Medicine
By Anthony Weiss, Luke Sato, and Barak Richman (5/3/20)

Artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms present new relationships between physicians and their tools, raising new questions about the organization of medicine and the role of physicians. Read More >>

FOLLOWING THE ACA

Supreme Court Rules That Insurers Are Entitled To Risk-Corridors Payments: What The Court Said And What Happens Next
By Katie Keith (4/28/20)

The court’s ruling upholds "a principle as old as the nation itself: the government should honor its obligations." Insurers will receive billions in unpaid risk-corridors payments, but it could take time, and the impact will vary significantly by state and insurer. The impact of the court's decision on litigation over cost-sharing reduction payments is uncertain.
Read More >>

PAYMENT

Consumer Protection Realignment: Shifting Consumer Billing From Providers To Health Plans
By John A. Sackett and Allen Dobson (5/1/20)

Consumer protection realignment would alter the balance of responsibility between plans and providers—plans would have an increased incentive to manage population health, and providers could enjoy lower costs and less consumer "collection" hassle. Read More >>

COSTS & SPENDING

What Do High Drug Prices Buy Us?
By Richard Frank, Jerry Avorn, and Aaron Kesselheim (4/29/20)

If the government negotiated for prices based on a drug’s real advantage over existing products, it could provide a better incentive for more useful innovation as well as improve the affordability of prescription drugs. Read More >>

PHARMACEUTICALS AND MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Medication "Lotteries": Is This The Most Ethical Way To Ration Scarce Drugs?
By Jacob M. Appel and Mira Michels-Gualtieri (4/24/20)

What begins as an altruistic tool for distributing one drug will soon become a marketing tool for distributing many. Patients’ lives will come down to numbers on a ticket—as though they were playing Powerball or competing for a prize at the state fair. It is hard to imagine a system more unseemly. Read More >>

CULTURE OF HEALTH

Anchor Businesses Can Be Change Makers For Community Health Improvement
By Megan McHugh, Claude R. Maechling, and Jane L. Holl (4/27/20)

Among the priority areas for Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams is the link between the health of a community and economic prosperity. Many business leaders have offered wellness benefits to their employees, but leaders have historically felt less responsibility for advancing the health of the community at-large. An RWJF program looks at how anchor businesses could advance health and well-being—and build a culture of health—in their communities. Read More >>

MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH

Saving Moms, Saving Lives
By Lauren Underwood (4/27/20)

Taken together, the nine bills included in the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2020 represent a sweeping effort to address our nation’s urgent maternal mortality crisis.
Read More >>

ELDER CARE

The Health Care System Is An Untapped Resource In Combating Social Isolation And Loneliness In Older Adults
By Dan G. Blazer and Lisa Marsh Ryerson (4/30/20)

Loneliness and social isolation are linked to more hospitalizations and more readmissions among older adults, while chronic loneliness is associated with more doctors’ visits.
Read More >>

ELSEWHERE @HEALTH AFFAIRS

Meet The Winners Of The Narrative Matters Poetry Contest
By Jessica Bylander (5/1/20)

In honor of National Poetry Month, the Narrative Matters section of Health Affairs is pleased to announce the three winning poems of its second-ever poetry contest, and tell you a bit about the poets themselves. Read More >>

IN THE JOURNAL

INTEGRATING SOCIAL SERVICES & HEALTH

Assessing The Capacity Of Local Social Services Agencies To Respond To Referrals From Health Care Providers
By Matthew Kreuter, Rachel Garg, Tess Thompson, Amy McQueen, Irum Javed, Balaji Golla, Charlene Caburnay, and Regina Greer

Health care providers are increasingly screening low-income patients for social needs and making referrals to social services agencies to assist in resolving them. A major assumption of this approach is that local social services providers have the capacity and resources to help. To explore this assumption, Matthew Kreuter and coauthors examined 711,613 requests related to 50 different social needs received from callers to 211-helplines in seven states during 2018. Read More >>

Buying Health For North Carolinians: Addressing Nonmedical Drivers Of Health At Scale
By Zachary Wortman, Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson, and Mandy Krauthamer Cohen

Since 2017 the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has asked how its resources could be optimized to buy health, not only health care. Zachary Wortman and coauthors describe four interconnected initiatives that the department has implemented or is implementing to begin integrating medical and nonmedical drivers of health. Read More >>

Integrating Health And Human Services In California’s Whole Person Care Medicaid 1115 Waiver Demonstration
By Emmeline Chuang, Nadereh Pourat, Leigh Ann Haley, Brenna O’Masta, Elaine Albertson, and Connie Lu

California launched the Whole Person Care Pilot in 2016 with the goal of integrating care for high-utilizing Medi-Cal (California Medicaid) enrollees. Emmeline Chuang and colleagues describe the early experience of the pilot, which brought together county health agencies, Medicaid managed care plans, community-based providers, and other public agencies.
Read More >>

Innovative Integrated Health And Social Care Programs In Eleven High-Income Countries
By Onil Bhattacharyya, James Shaw, Samir Sinha, Dara Gordon, Simone Shahid, Walter P. Wodchis, and Geoffrey Anderson

Recent reports suggest that integrated health and social care programs target specific high-needs population segments, coordinate health and social care services to meet their clients’ needs, and engage clients and their caregivers. Onil Bhattacharyya and coauthors identified thirty health and social care programs in eleven high-income countries that delivered care in new ways. Read More >>

Innovative Policy Supports For Integrated Health And Social Care Programs In High-Income Countries
By Walter P. Wodchis, James Shaw, Samir Sinha, Onil Bhattacharyya, Simone Shahid, and Geoffrey Anderson

Walter P. Wodchis and coauthors describe the innovative policies that national, regional, and local policy makers have used to support the development, spread, and scale of thirty integrated health and social care programs in eleven high-income countries. Read More >>

ENTRY POINT

Treating Children, Coaching Their Parents
By Rob Lott

The Parent Connext program in Cincinnati, Ohio, integrates social services for families into pediatric care visits. Read More >>

(See also on Health Affairs Blog: "In Case Parenting Wasn’t Hard Enough...Here Comes Coronavirus: How One Health System Offers Support.")

GRANTWATCH

Funders Support Integrating Health And Social Services
By Lee L. Prina

Aligning with the theme of the journal's April 2020 issue, which is Integrating Social Services & Health, the April GrantWatch column contains examples of foundation-funded efforts in related areas. These include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Systems for Action national research program; a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report—funded by numerous foundations—on integrating social care into health care delivery; the Kresge Foundation's grants to five counties to integrate health and human services systems; and more. In the Key Personnel Changes section, read about Debbie Chang's new job and the new president and CEO of Grantmakers In Health. Read More >>

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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