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A Weekly Health Policy Round Up From Health Affairs
June 14, 2020
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FAST TRACK AHEAD OF PRINT
COVID-19 FEATURE TOPIC—NYC Health + Hospitals
Critical Care And Emergency Department Response At The Epicenter Of The COVID-19 Pandemic
By Amit Uppal, David M. Silvestri, Matthew Siegler, Shaw Natsui, Leon Boudourakis, R. James Salway, Manish
Parikh, Konstantinos Agoritsas, Hyung J. Cho, Rajneesh Gulati, Milton Nunez, Anjali Hulbanni, Christine Flaherty, Laura Iavicoli, Natalia Cineas, Marc Kanter, Stuart Kessler, Karin V. Rhodes, Michael Bouton, and Eric K. Wei
As cases rose in New York City, NYC Health + Hospitals (NYC H+H) carried out plans to greatly expand critical care capacity. Primary ICU spaces were identified and upgraded as needed, while new ICU spaces were created in emergency departments, procedural areas, and other inpatient units. Read More >>
A Phone Call Away: New York’s Hotline And Public Health In The Rapidly Changing COVID-19 Pandemic
By Ross Kristal, Madden Rowell, Marielle Kress, Chris Keeley, Hannah Jackson, Katherine Piwnica-Worms, Lisa Hendricks, Theodore G. Long, and Andrew B. Wallach
In early March 2020, an outbreak of COVID-19 in New York City exerted sudden and
extreme pressures on emergency medical services and quickly changed public health policy and clinical guidance. Recognizing this, NYC H+H established a clinician-staffed COVID-19 hotline for all New Yorkers. Read More >>
Staying Connected In The COVID-19 Pandemic: Telehealth At The Largest Safety-Net System In The United States
By Jen Lau, Janine Knudsen, Hannah Jackson, Andrew B. Wallach, Michael Bouton, Shaw Natsui, Christopher Philippou, Erfan Karim, David M. Silvestri, Lynsey Avalone, Milana Zaurova, Daniel Schatz, Vivian Sun, and Dave A. Chokshi
Starting in March 2020 NYC H+H was able to transform the system using virtual care platforms through which it conducted almost 83,000 billable televisits in one month and more than 30,000 behavioral health encounters via telephone and video. Telehealth also enabled us to support patient-family communication,
post-discharge follow-up, and palliative care for COVID-19 patients. Read More >>
Staffing Up For The Surge: Expanding The New York City Public Hospital Workforce During The COVID-19 Pandemic
By Chris Keeley, Theodore G. Long, Natalia Cineas, Yvette Villanueva, Donnie Bell, Andrew B. Wallach, Ivelesse Mendez-Justiniano, Hannah Jackson, Donna Boyle Schwartz, Jonathan
Jimenez, R. James Salway, and Leon Boudourakis
To meet the unprecedented demand for patient care, NYC H+H redeployed staff to the areas of greatest need and redesigned recruiting, onboarding, and training processes. The hospital system engaged private staffing agencies, partnered with the US Department of Defense, and recruited volunteers throughout the country. Read More >>
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THIS WEEK ON THE BLOGCOVID-19
Clinical Trials For COVID-19: Populations Most Vulnerable To COVID-19 Must Be Included
By Aisha T. Langford and Alison Bateman-House (6/12/20)
For COVID-19 clinical trials, we advise researchers to give careful thought to trials’ inclusion and exclusion criteria, make sure people are aware of and invited to participate in trials when eligible, ensure that those eligible to participate have access to studies where they live or get their care, and minimize participation burden. Read More >>
Reimagining COVID-19 Quarantine In The US To Be Effective, Ethical, And Equitable
By Nana A. Y. Twum-Danso
(6/12/20)
As the US looks to balance reopening communities and avoiding further COVID-19 spread, identifying and quickly isolating positive cases is becoming a more pressing concern. A national response should take into account active management of individuals who have tested positive but are not sick enough for hospitalization, and those who have been exposed but have not yet had their infection status confirmed. Read More >>
This post serves as the introduction to a series of articles describing how our system grappled with the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Our hope is that our early experiences may offer useful lessons for those facing the pandemic’s ongoing and future threats—health system leaders, policy makers, elected officials, researchers, patients,
caregivers, and clinicians, among many others. Read More >>
Strengthening The Medicare Trust Fund In The Era Of COVID-19
By David M. Cutler, Richard G. Frank, Jonathan Gruber, and Joseph P. Newhouse (6/10/20)
Key financial and programmatic changes to the Medicare Trust Fund would improve the financial situation of the fund by at least $51 billion per year. These changes would put new obligations on the Part B program, which could be offset by savings from reduced payments for prescription drugs and home health services. Read More >>
Beyond Lip Service: Taking A Genuine Approach To Tackling COVID-19 (And All) Black–White Health Disparities In The United States
By LaShawn Marie Glasgow (6/9/20)
A genuine approach to addressing black–white health
disparities that includes confronting hard truths about systemic ills and injustice; honoring black Americans as a diverse group of people; and meaningfully engaging black citizens, communities, and experts will help deepen our understanding of this complex problem and lead us to better solutions. Read More >>
COVID-19: Substance Use Disorder, Privacy, And The CARES Act
By Nicolas P. Terry, Melissa M. Goldstein, and Kirk J. Nahra (6/8/20)
Congress surprisingly took the opportunity to settle—without public debate and in a "must-pass" piece of legislation otherwise focused on COVID-19—a longstanding dispute about the value of special protections for the privacy of substance use disorder patients in the context of existing health care industry practice. Read More >>
COVID-19 Reveals An Urgent Need To Reimagine What A System Of Health Should Be
By David D. Fukuzawa (6/8/20)
We need to rethink and reimagine what a health system—or
perhaps better yet, a system of health—should be. The COVID-19 crisis has shown us all too clearly that this is the time to move beyond a health system centered on delivering medical services to one that is truly centered on health at both an individual and population level. Read More >>
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FOLLOWING THE ACA New Proposed Rule On Health
Care Sharing Ministries And Direct Primary CareBy Katie Keith (6/12/20)On June 8, the IRS issued a proposed rule that would allow employers to reimburse employees for fees for direct primary care and health care sharing ministries through a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). The proposed rule defines these fees or "shares" as payments for medical care or medical insurance, which makes them eligible for a tax deduction as
qualified medical expenses. Read More >>
SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERExpanding Access To Treatment For Opioid Use Disorder: The Pandemic Presents A Learning Opportunity
By Karen Scott (6/12/20)
A national funder that launched in 2018 decided that its first priority should be making it easier for people with opioid use disorder to access evidence-based treatment services. The foundation wanted to focus on groups with the highest risks of overdose deaths,
including people leaving correctional facilities, postpartum women, and residents of remote, rural, and inner-city areas. Then COVID-19 hit. The foundation has adapted to the pandemic and aims to learn from it. 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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