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A Weekly Health Policy Round Up From Health Affairs            

**June 21, 2020**

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FAST TRACK AHEAD OF PRINT

Community Use Of Face Masks And COVID-19: Evidence From A Natural
Experiment Of State Mandates In The US

By Wei Lyu and George L. Wehby

Wei Lyu and George Wehby estimate the effect of face cover mandates on
the county-level COVID-19 growth rate by evaluating public data sets and
reviewing all state orders issued between April 1 and May 21, 2020.
According to the authors, mandating public use of face masks is
associated with a reduction in the COVID-19 daily growth rate, with the
effect increasing over time and reaching 2.0 percentage points
twenty-one days after the issuance of an order. The authors also
estimate that the face mask mandates had prevented as many as
230,000-450,000 US COVID-19 cases by May 22. Read More >>

IN THE JOURNAL

OPIOID USE DISORDER

Buprenorphine Treatment By Primary Care Providers, Psychiatrists,
Addiction Specialists, And Others

By Mark Olfson, Victoria Zhang, Michael Schoenbaum, and Marissa King

Using a national prescription database that covered 72-92 percent of
the US population during 2010-18, Mark Olfson and coauthors analyzed
trends in buprenorphine treatment by prescriber specialty. Read More >>

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Treatment Of Opioid Use Disorder Among Commercially Insured US Adults,
2008-17

By Karen Shen, Eric Barrette, and Leemore S. Dafny

There is abundant literature on efforts to reduce opioid prescriptions
and misuse, but comparatively little on the treatment provided to people
with opioid use disorder (OUD). Using claims data representing 12-15
million nonelderly adults covered through commercial group insurance
during the period 2008-17, Karen Shen and coauthors explored rates of
OUD diagnoses, treatment patterns, and spending. Read More >>

PHARMACEUTICALS & MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Estimating The Cost Of Delayed Generic Drug Entry To Medicaid

By Chintan V. Dave, Michael S. Sinha, Reed F. Beall, and Aaron S.
Kesselheim

Chintan Dave and coauthors find that of sixty-nine brand-name drugs that
were expected to lose market exclusivity in the period 2010-16,
generic entry was delayed by at least one calendar quarter for
thirty-one, usually at least in part because of patent litigation. Total
estimated costs to the Medicaid program over this period due to delays
were in excess of $700 million. Read More >>

The Impact Of Academic Medical Center Policies Restricting
Direct-To-Physician Marketing On Opioid Prescribing

By Matthew D. Eisenberg, Elizabeth M. Stone, Harlan Pittell, and Emma E.
McGinty

Examining a period when academic medical centers increasingly adopted
restrictions on marketing practices related to opioids, Matthew
Eisenberg and coauthors find "evidence that the presence of
restrictions-specifically, bans on sales representatives and
disclosure requirements-were associated with reduced volume of opioid
prescribing."
Read More >>

THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

COVID-19

In The COVID-19 Era, And Beyond, Symptom Monitoring Should Be A
Universal Health Care Function

By Robert S. Rudin, Mark W. Friedberg, and Daniel A. Solomon

As countries, states, and cities reopen, millions of people are
projected to contract COVID-19, threatening to overwhelm inpatient and
aftercare capacity. Central to a successful response by national health
care systems, and to preparing for inevitable future disease outbreaks,
is symptom assessment. Read More >>

A Systematic Approach To Mitigate The Spread Of COVID-19 In Immigration
Detention Facilities

By Parsa Erfani, Caroline Lee, Nishant Uppal, and Katherine Peeler
(6/17/20)

The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing the dangerous conditions under which
detained immigrants are being held. The release of detainees from
facilities is of the highest priority. However, mass testing of
detainees, improving access to health care, and establishing an
ombudsman office to inspect facilities and respond to misconduct are all
necessary while litigation is pending. Read More >>

How States Are Facilitating Medicaid Enrollment During COVID-19-And
How They Can Do Even More

By Rebecca Landucci, Jennifer E. Moore, Clare C. Brown, Caroline E.
Adams, Nicole Truhe, and Mark Larson (6/17/20)

As the pandemic continues to impact rates of unemployment, many will
rely on Medicaid as a critical source of health coverage and access to
care. Given the large number of potential applicants, states have an
opportunity to adopt strategies to make the application and enrollment
processes easier and more efficient for potential applicants. Read More
>>

COVID-19 Leads To 50 Percent Fewer ED Encounters At Major Hospitals In
New Orleans

By Rebekah E. Gee, Scott Mackey, Pete Croughan, and Will Boles (6/17/20)

Clinicians in many places (including New Orleans) are seeing an alarming
trend right now-fewer visits to the emergency department. The need to
mobilize means for widespread awareness of both COVID-19 and the effects
of delayed care is urgent.Read More >>

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Public Health Cannot Go It Alone On COVID-19

By Amy Killelea (6/16/20)

The COVID-19 pandemic requires an unprecedented response that leverages
all of the tools at our disposal. Public health and private insurance
must work in tandem to best target resources across health care and
public health settings. Read More >>

Targeted Coronavirus Testing Is Essential For Health Equity

By Ryan Huerto, Susan Goold, and Duane Newton (6/15/20)

Minoritized and low-income populations are at greater risk of COVID-19
infection and mortality. Prioritizing testing in these and other
marginalized communities could enable those at higher risk for severe
illness and, typically, worse access to care, to be more safely
monitored and promptly treated. Read More >>

FOLLOWING THE ACA

EEOC Will Advance New Wellness Regulations

By Katie Keith (6/17/20)

In a public meeting on June 11, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) voted, by 2-1, to advance a new notice of proposed
rulemaking on wellness programs. The EEOC intends to move forward with
the proposed rule after parts of its last regulation were invalidated in
court and even as the value of wellness programs has been refuted in
several recent studies. This post summarizes the status of regulations
for wellness programs, the comments made during the public meeting, and
what to expect next.
Read More >>

Supreme Court Finds LGBT People Are Protected From Employment
Discrimination: Implications For The ACA

By Katie Keith (6/16/20)

While the Supreme Court's ruling has many important consequences, this
post focuses on implications for a recent rule on Section 1557 of the
Affordable Care Act that was issued only three days prior. Overall, the
decision calls major parts of the Office for Civil Rights' final rule
into question. Read More >>

CONSIDERING HEALTH SPENDING

VA And ICER At Three Years: Critics' Concerns Answered

By Peter A. Glassman, Steven D. Pearson, Jennifer Zacher, David Rind,
and Michael A. Valentino (6/15/20)

In June 2017 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) entered a
relationship with the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review in
order to enhance the VA's internal evidence review processes. Given the
initial concerns that were raised when this collaboration was first
announced, we provide an update on the successes and challenges of this
partnership.
Read More >>

This post appears in the series Considering Health Spending
.

COSTS & SPENDING

A Scalpel Instead Of A Sledgehammer: The Potential Of Value-Based
Deductible Exemptions In High-Deductible Health Plans

By Douglas Barthold and Anirban Basu

Value-based high-deductible health plans would ensure access to
high-value services by exempting their costs from deductibles, while
also providing consumers with transparency on the full costs of
low-value services and disincentivizing their use. Read More >>

CMS's Proposed Rule On Value-Based Purchasing For Prescription Drugs:
New Tools For Negotiating Prices For The Next Generation Of Therapies

By Seema Verma (6/17/20)

A proposed rule released today by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services aims to empower commercial plans to negotiate value-based
purchasing arrangements for prescription drugs while extending these
discounts to Medicaid programs. The proposed rule is designed to ensure
that the Medicaid Best Price accurately captures both the prices that
are paid in new types of payment models and the circumstances in which
those prices are paid. Read More >>

Make Transparent Health Care Prices A Price Of Any Future Aid To The
Health Care Industry

By Brian Blase (6/16/20)

It's time for Congress to stop focusing its efforts on supporting the
wealthy health care and health insurance industries, and it's time for
these industries to help American families and businesses and drop their
fight against health care price transparency. This starts by equipping
Americans-both families and employers-with tools to be better
purchasers of health care. 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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