View Message in Browser

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

mailto:[email protected]

[link removed]

A Weekly Health Policy Round-Up From Health Affairs            

**August 2, 2020**

THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

COVID-19
[link removed]

Building The Long-Term Care System Of The Future: Will The COVID-19
Nursing Home Tragedies Lead To Real Reform?

By Bruce Allen Chernof and Cindy Mann (7/31/20)

This is neither a sustainable system nor one prepared for future
outbreaks, particularly in light of a rapidly aging population. Read
More >>

A Digital Bridge To Real-Time COVID-19 Data

By John R. Lumpkin and Andrew Wiesenthal (7/31/20)

The need for accurate COVID-19 surveillance is immediate. The Digital
Bridge is a production solution that is already meeting that need in
some places. Its use should be mandated to encompass all reportable
conditions of public health interest going forward. Read More >>

Addressing Barriers To Care For Patients With Limited English
Proficiency During The COVID-19 Pandemic

By Lala Tanmoy Das, Eric J. Kutscher, and Christopher J. Gonzalez
(7/29/20)

Language barriers to COVID-19 care, exacerbated by HHS relaxing language
access regulations, illustrate how much more work is necessary in this
domain. Implementing changes in medical education, as well as adopting
language accessibility-focused technology solutions, may help to lessen
these disparities in the long term. Read More >>

Imposing The Costs Of Workplace Coronavirus Testing On Group Plan
Coverage Would Place An Excessive Burden On Essential Workers

By Linda J. Blumberg, Sabrina Corlette, and Michael Simpson (7/28/20)

Although testing is one of the most important tools we have for
reopening businesses and schools, there is no comprehensive federal
strategy for identifying which workers should be tested, how often, or
how testing should be financed. Direct federal government funding for
COVID-19 testing for workers in essential industries would spread these
public health-associated costs broadly across all taxpayers. Read More
>>

Maximizing Food Security For Unauthorized Immigrants During COVID-19

By David Velasquez, Jordan Kondo, Sarah Downer, and Emily Broad Leib
(7/28/20)

The US should take steps to meet the basic food needs of unauthorized
immigrants in the US to protect them from the harms of COVID-19. Read
More >>

Village Versus Virus: Rural Ethos Protects Where Public Health Fails

By Anne N. Sosin and Elizabeth A. Carpenter-Song (7/27/20)

Despite the many challenges that these systems face, rural health
systems and communities were able to mount an effective response to the
COVID-19 pandemic that helped to stem the spread of the disease, created
capacity to respond to a surge, and protected their most vulnerable
populations. Read More >>

Data-Driven Solutions For COVID-19 In Skilled Nursing Facilities: MDS
'Section Y'

By Barry S. Fogel (7/27/20)

In the present SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, decisions about health policy and
clinical care for skilled nursing facility (SNF) residents are being
made daily despite a lack of comprehensive data to inform them. I
propose a feasible, cost-efficient, and rapidly implementable solution
to the data gap: the addition of a new section to the Minimum Data Set
for SNF residents comprising data specific to COVID-19. Read More >>

FOLLOWING THE ACA

ACA Round-Up: Pennsylvania Waiver Approved, DE Guidance, And More

By Katie Keith (7/29/20)

On July 24, Pennsylvania became the thirteenth state to be approved for
a state-based reinsurance program under Section 1332 of the Affordable
Care Act (ACA). This post also summarizes a recent Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) report on state-based reinsurance programs,
the newest waiver proposal in Georgia, and other recent federal guidance
on direct enrollment (DE), COVID-19, and more. Read More >>

Marketplace Effectuated Enrollment Data Stable; Report Shows Slight
Increase In Risk Scores

By Katie Keith (7/27/20)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released two new
reports. The first includes a full year of Marketplace enrollment data
for the 2019 plan year and preliminary effectuated Marketplace
enrollment data for the 2020 plan year. The second report is the summary
risk adjustment report for 2019 detailing about $10.8 billion in
transfers.
Read More >>

QUALITY OF CARE

High-Value Care Every Time: Recommendations From The National Quality
Task Force

By Ayesha D'Avena, Shantanu Agrawal, and Kenneth W. Kizer

While much remains to be achieved, the historical progression of the
quality movement is encouraging. Building on the foundation of Crossing
the Quality Chasm, the National Quality Task Force has identified five
strategic objectives to normalize high-value, person-centered care for
every person, everywhere, every time. Read More >>

The Care We Need: Getting From Here To There

By Carolyn Clancy (7/30/20)

While we have made much progress in improving the safety of care that we
provide patients, especially in reducing health care-acquired
infections and medication errors, there is still much more to learn and
implement. Read More >>

ADOLESCENT HEALTH

It's Time To Invest In Better Health And Well-Being For Teens

By Benjamin F. Miller and Denise Dougherty (7/30/20)

Teens today are facing a myriad of challenges-many unique to their
generation-and we are not doing enough to help them, says this post by
Ben Miller of Well Being Trust and Denise Dougherty of AcademyHealth.
They discuss a recent foundation-funded report, Advancing Teen
Flourishing: Moving Policy Upstream, which contains ideas and
strategies. One suggestion is for schools to focus on not only teens'
academic achievement but also their social, emotional, and psychological
well-being. Read More >>

DISPARITIES

Focusing Beyond Disparities In Patient Outcomes

By Jacqueline M. Chiofalo (7/28/20)

When discussing health disparities, much attention is focused on
disparities in health outcomes. However, these are the final
culminations of systems stacked against minority groups. Greater
research focus needs to be placed on structural and process measures of
health to allow for comparisons within and between institutions. Read
More >>

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

Comparison of SDOH-Related Investments By Texas And California Medicaid
Health Plans

By Shao-Chee Sim, Jeremy Cantor, Nicole Giron, Carolyn Wang Kong, Kay
Ghahremani, and Jamie Dudensing (7/27/20)

Given the important role of Medicaid health plans in California and
Texas in addressing the health and social needs of large enrollee
populations and the plans' interest in advancing the social determinants
of health (SDOH) agenda in both states, two foundations sought to better
understand the plans' investments in improving SDOHs. The authors
compare results from surveys in California and Texas-the two most
populous states in the US. Read More >>

IN THE JOURNAL

WOMEN'S HEALTH
[link removed]
Pharmacist-Prescribed And Over-The-Counter Hormonal Contraception In Los
Angeles County Retail Pharmacies

By Dima Mazen Qato, G. Caleb Alexander, Jenny S. Guadamuz, Sun Choi,
Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr, and Stacy Tessler Lindau

Dima Qato and coauthors use a census of retail pharmacies in Los Angeles
County to evaluate contraception availability a year after California
implemented a statewide order granting pharmacies prescriptive authority
for preventive contraceptives, and four years after federal law
eliminated age restrictions on obtaining emergency contraception. Read
More >>

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CARE

Prices And Cost Sharing For Psychotherapy In Network Versus Out Of
Network In The United States

By Nicole M. Benson and Zirui Song

Patients in the US are more likely to receive out-of-network behavioral
health care, including treatment for mental health or substance use
disorders, than they are to receive other medical and surgical services
out of network. Nicole Benson and Zirui Song compare levels and growth
of insurer-negotiated prices, patient cost sharing, and use of
psychotherapy services in network and out of network in a large,
commercially insured US population during 2007-17. Read More >>

[link removed]

COVID-19

Estimating The Infection Fatality Rate Among Symptomatic COVID-19 Cases
In The United States

By Anirban Basu

Ascertaining the infection fatality rate (IFR) of COVID-19 infections is
essential in combating this pandemic. Anirban Basu selected 116
counties, spanning 33 states, with a total of 40,835 confirmed cases and
1,620 confirmed deaths through April 20, 2020, to calculate that the IFR
in the US is 1.3 percent, with significant variations across counties.
Read More >>

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 >>

Disparities In Outcomes Among COVID-19 Patients In A Large Health Care
System In California

By Kristen M. J. Azar, Zijun Shen, Robert J. Romanelli, Stephen H.
Lockhart, Kelly Smits, Sarah Robinson, Stephanie Brown, and Alice R.
Pressman

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout the United States, there is
growing evidence that racial and ethnic minorities and socioeconomically
disadvantaged groups bear a disproportionate burden of illness and
death. Kristen Azar and coauthors analyzed the medical records of
COVID-19 patients at Sutter Health, a large integrated health network in
Northern California, to measure potential disparities. After analyzing
1,052 confirmed COVID-19 cases from January 1 to April 8, 2020, the
authors observed that, compared with non-Hispanic white patients,
African Americans had 2.7 times the odds of hospitalization, after
adjusting for age, gender, comorbidities, and income. Read More >>

Strong Social Distancing Measures In The United States Reduced The
COVID-19 Growth Rate

By Charles Courtemanche, Joseph Garuccio, Anh Le, Joshua Pinkston, and
Aaron Yelowitz

To minimize the spread of COVID-19 during March and April 2020, US state
and local governments joined worldwide efforts to impose social
distancing measures. They have included bans on large social gatherings,
public school closures, the shuttering of entertainment-related
businesses, and shelter-in-place orders. Charles Courtemanche and
coauthors examined the impact of these four measures, separately and
collectively, and found that these policies reduced the daily COVID-19
growth rate by 5.4 percentage points after 1-5 days, 6.8 percentage
points after 6-10 days, 8.2 percentage points after 11-15 days, and
9.1 percentage points after 16-20 days. Read More >>

GRANTWATCH

Funders Support Mental Health Care: COVID-19 And Before

By Lee L. Prina

The July 2020 GrantWatch column focuses on foundation activities related
to mental health-including a few related to COVID-19. Here are some
examples. The Ethel and James Flinn Foundation is funding free virtual
behavior therapy and counseling for Detroit, Michigan, residents
affected by COVID-19. The Bipartisan Policy Center has launched a
Behavioral Health Integration Task Force funded by three foundations.
And the California Health Care Foundation announced an online training
program to "nearly double" the pipeline of psychiatric mental health
nurse practitioners in that state. In the column's Key Personnel Changes
section, read about the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's new vice
president for policy.
Read More >>

[link removed]

NARRATIVE MATTERS:
PATIENT-CENTERED CARE

Finding Time For Compassion In A Busy Emergency Department

By Angela D. Blood

A medical error in the emergency department causes emotional trauma for
a patient, who seeks compassion in the aftermath.
Read More >>

Listen to the podcast here
.
[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

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.

Health Affairs, 7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, United States

Privacy Policy

To unsubscribe from this email, click here
.                 
                                               
                        I