FAST TRACK AHEAD OF PRINT

COVID-19

Community-Level Factors Associated With Racial And Ethnic Disparities
In COVID-19 Rates In Massachusetts
By José F. Figueroa, Rishi K. Wadhera, Dennis Lee, Robert W. Yeh, and Benjamin D. Sommers

This past spring, Massachusetts had one of the highest incidence rates of COVID-19 cases in the US. Early reports suggested that Black and Latino residents were disproportionately affected. However, evidence on whether specific demographic, economic, and occupational factors were associated with a higher risk for COVID-19 among minority communities remains sparse. José Figueroa and coauthors examined the association between community-level factors and COVID-19 case rates across 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts between January 1 and May 6, 2020. Read More >>

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Costs Are Higher For Marketplace Members Who Enroll During Special Enrollment Periods Compared With Open Enrollment
By Laura F. Garabedian, Robert LeCates, Alison Galbraith, Dennis Ross-Degnan, and J. Frank Wharam

Adverse selection, the phenomenon in which people are more likely to enroll in a health insurance plan when they have a medical need, has the potential to threaten the stability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges, or Marketplaces. This study examines the trends among those who enrolled during a special enrollment period in a Marketplace of a large national insurer. Read More >>

DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

Food Insecurity Is Associated With Higher Health Care Use And Costs Among Canadian Adults
By Fei Men, Craig Gundersen, Marcelo L. Urquia, and Valerie Tarasuk

This study marks an important step toward understanding the relationship of household food insecurity to individual health, health care use, and public health expenditure. Fei Men and coauthors note: "The study was situated in the Canadian context, where the costs of acute care hospitalization and same-day surgery were fully covered by universal health insurance, thus minimizing the selection bias introduced by affordability." Read More >>

SNAP Participants Improved Food Security And Diet After A Full-Service Supermarket Opened In An Urban Food Desert
By Jonathan Cantor, Robin Beckman, Rebecca L. Collins, Madhumita Ghosh Dastidar, Andrea S. Richardson, and Tamara Dubowitz

Jonathan Cantor and coauthors explore the intersection of two US government efforts to improve access to food—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). They test the impact of a new, HFFI-financed, full-service supermarket on SNAP participants in an urban food desert. Read More >>

GRANTWATCH

Foundations Help Fight Effects And Roots Of COVID-19
By Lee L. Prina

The August 2020 GrantWatch column is a three-page sampling of how foundations from California to Massachusetts have been participating in the fight against the coronavirus. They have awarded grants, held webinars, commissioned a poll, funded an online "COVID-19 Resources for States," and published instructive blog posts and opinion pieces. In Key Personnel Changes, read about the recently named leader of Arcora Foundation, an oral health funder, as well as news of Sheldon Weisgrau, Katherine Fritz, and Harvard's David R. Williams. Read More >>

THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

COVID-19

Engaging Primary Care In The Community Management Of COVID-19: Global Lessons From A Small Town In Alberta, Canada
By Saugata Chakraborty, Adam Vyse, and Annalee Coakley (8/28/20)

The outbreak at the High River meat packing plant in early April 2020 is a case study on how socioeconomic factors can contribute to the spread of COVID-19. Read More >>

Understanding The FDA’s Controversial Convalescent Plasma Authorization
By Rachel Sachs (8/27/20)

In the longer term, the damage done to the Food and Drug Administration’s independent image may translate into a loss of public trust, which could lead to increased levels of vaccine hesitancy—potentially disastrous when a vaccine may be critical to fighting COVID-19.
Read More >>

Count Native Hawaiian And Pacific Islanders In COVID-19 Data—It’s An OMB Mandate
By Richard Calvin Chang, Corina Penaia, and Karla Thomas (8/27/20)

Identifying particularly susceptible populations will be critical for effectively allocating health and economic resources that will help mitigate COVID-19’s impact. State and county agencies should not have to miss opportunities for additional resources, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders should not be hidden in the data when strong justification exists for counting them. Read More >>

COVID-19 Underscores The Need For Digital Quality Measurement
By Benjamin Hamlin, Margaret E. O’Kane, Michael Barr, and Paul Cotton (8/26/20)

Digital quality measures shorten the time required to advance more clinically relevant measures that reduce burden, enhance accuracy, and drive quality improvement. To fully implement them, policies must be in place to help reshape the quality ecosystem, just as was done for learning measurement systems and computable evidence synthesis. Read More >>

Expanding Community-Based Immunization To Meet Today’s Vaccine Challenges
By Purva Rawal, Jennifer Rak, Elizabeth Docteur, and Lu Zawistowich (8/24/20)

To ensure timely and equitable access to vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, the health care delivery system must reconfigure resources and make additional investments in three existing community-based sites that policy makers and stakeholders should build on through additional support and partnership. Read More >>

FOLLOWING THE ACA

Temporary Premium Credits: New Rule Clarifies Risk Adjustment And Medical Loss Ratio Standards
By Katie Keith (8/26/20)

On August 25, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a sweeping interim final rule providing additional guidance on the recently announced temporary premium credits policy. The policy, announced on August 4, allows insurers in the individual and small group markets to temporarily reduce monthly premiums for 2020 coverage. Read More >>

Trump Administration Deems Georgia’s 1332 Waiver Application, With Individual Market Restructuring, Complete
By Katie Keith (8/25/20)

While not as dramatic as Georgia’s initial application, the revised Georgia Access Model would still—if approved—make marked changes to the state’s individual market and would be the broadest waiver ever approved under Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act.
Read More >>

CULTURE OF HEALTH

Making Anti-Racism A Core Value In Academic Medicine
By J. Nwando Olayiwola, Joshua J. Joseph, Autumn R. Glover, Harold L. Paz, and Darrell M. Gray, II (8/25/20)

Academic medical centers and health care organizations that are not acting to eliminate racism are perpetuating its proliferation. The Ohio State University’s Anti-Racism Action Plan provides a model for actively working against racism, by evaluating curricula, practices, training models, behaviors, and actions through a lens of anti-racism. Read More >>

HOSPITALS

The Hospital Industry Is In A Financial Mess: We Have A Unique Opportunity To Fix It
By Bruce Stuart (8/27/20)

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a hospital system woefully unprepared to deal with a financial crisis. We must fix the system and design policy solutions to mitigate the effects of hospital market power. Read More >>

MATERNAL HEALTH

Bringing Community-Based Doula Care To New Jersey
By Aron Lesser, Renée Nogales, and Atiya Weiss (8/27/20)

Community doulas can help pregnant and postpartum women by providing physical, educational, and social support through individualized services. Evidence shows that doula care can improve maternal and child health outcomes, especially in low-income areas and communities of color. Members of a group advising New Jersey Medicaid on equitable policy development for, and implementation of, doula care learned the importance of community members' direct participation in health policy development. 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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