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A Weekly Health Policy Round Up From Health Affairs
October 11, 2020
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IN THE JOURNAL
NEW ISSUE:
CHILDREN’S HEALTH
The October edition of Health Affairs is a theme issue on children’s health. As articles in the issue show, the US lags behind other developed countries in key indicators of child health and well-being. Studies in the issue provide a road map for future improvement.
The October issue was supported by Nemours, Blue Shield of California Foundation, Children’s Hospital Association, the Episcopal Health Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
Read the October 2020 table of contents.
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IN THE JOURNAL
CHILDREN'S HEALTH
A Novel Health-Transportation Partnership Paves The Road For Young Driver Safety Through Virtual Assessment
By Elizabeth A. Walshe, Daniel Romer, Venkatesh Kandadai, and Flaura K. Winston
For young drivers, crash risk peaks immediately after licensure and declines during the next two years, making the point of licensure an important safety intervention opportunity. Legislation in Ohio established a unique health-transportation partnership to
identify underprepared driver license applicants through a virtual driving assessment system.
Read More >>
Listen to Flaura Winston and Elizabeth Walshe discuss Ohio's virtual driving assessment system in the first episode of our new podcast series, A Health Podyssey.
Principles And Policies To Strengthen Child And Adolescent Health And Well-Being
By James M. Perrin, Greg Duncan, Angela Diaz, and Kelly Kelleher
James Perrin and coauthors summarize and identify crosscutting themes in four recent reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on strengthening child and adolescent health and well-being. Focusing on poverty; mental, emotional, and behavioral health; adolescence; and young family health and education, "the reports make clear that many evidence-based solutions allowing changes to current trajectories and outcomes already exist." Read More >>
CHILDREN'S HEALTH
Child Health As A National Security Issue: Obesity And Behavioral Health Conditions Among Military Children
By Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos, Amanda Banaag, Cathaleen King Madsen, and Terry Adirim
To build and maintain an effective US military force, at least 150,000 medically fit new personnel must be recruited annually. Because military dependents are more likely to serve than the broader population of US children, keeping them physically and mentally fit is important for meeting military recruiting goals, and is therefore critical for US national security. To evaluate the health of this group of young Americans, Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and coauthors evaluated the Department of Defense’s Military Health System administrative data for almost half a million (n=489,859) military dependents ages 13–18 for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Read More >>
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THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG
COVID-19
Recognizing Frailties In How We Measure Health and Health Care—And Charting A Pandemic-Resistant Path Forward
By Mohammed K. Ali and Carol M. Mangione
(10/9/20)
The pandemic has accentuated disparities and fragmentation and laid bare the inadequacies of health and health care measurement in the United States. This realization should catalyze investments in equity, interoperability, and patient-centered metrics and ecosystems that are pandemic resistant and support integrated delivery, measurement, and quality that aligns with the quadruple aim. Read More >>
How Maryland’s Total Cost Of Care Model Has Helped Hospitals Manage The COVID-19 Stress Test
By Chris L. Peterson and Dale N. Schumacher
Here we document how Maryland adjusted its policies—in collaboration with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation—to successfully respond to the pandemic’s volume impacts and ensure hospitals’ financial stability. Read More >>
Health Care Claims Data May Be Useful For COVID-19 Research Despite Significant Limitations
By Maimuna S. Majumder and Sherri Rose (10/6/20)
Claims-based COVID-19 studies have a role, but it is critical to understand the limitations of these data. Using these data to answer specific types of longitudinal questions requires deep knowledge of the underlying processes that generated the data, regulatory changes, provider behavior, and more to inform policy and decision making. Read More >>
Mask Mandates: A Public Health Framework For Enforcement
By Rebekah Gee and Vin Gupta (10/5/20)
With uncertainty regarding an effective vaccine and no clear therapeutic for COVID-19 in the pipeline, broad cooperation in masking is urgently needed. With
little time to waste, the time for a strategic and informed enforcement strategy has come. Leveraging what's worked in the past is critical, as several existing public health policies have a strong enforcement mechanism already in place. Read More >>
Beyond Survival To Transformation: Investing In Safety-Net Innovation To Address The Impacts Of COVID-19
By Urmimala Sarkar and Alice Hm Chen (10/5/20)
With appropriate federal investment and regulation, innovations spurred by the pandemic can be adopted by safety-net systems and tailored to the needs of specific vulnerable groups. Without it, those communities that bear the greatest burden of COVID-19-related disease will only fall further behind. Read More >>
SHORT SERIES: HIGHER HEALTH CARE VALUE POST-COVID-19
Establishing A Value-Based ‘New Normal’ For Telehealth
By Christina M. Cutter, Nicholas L. Berlin, and A. Mark Fendrick (10/8/20)
Determination of the post-pandemic role of telehealth will be complex and consequential, and should be grounded in a value-based approach. This post capitalizes on the natural experiment afforded by the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes a value-driven telehealth policy and research agenda. Read More >>
How The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Affected Provision Of Elective Services: The Challenges Ahead
By Bruce
Stuart (10/8/20)
How will the experience of not being able to access routine care affect patients’ longer-term behavior in seeking care? Will the economic consequences of lost jobs, income, and health insurance further reduce demand? What tactics will providers employ to build back patient revenues? Will they move to further expand their market power? Read More >>
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FOLLOWING THE ACA
CSR Litigation, New Non-ACA Plan Decision
By Katie Keith (10/5/20)
This post summarizes insurers’ requests for a rehearing in their pursuit of full unpaid cost-sharing reduction payments and a district court decision to sanction yet another alternative to Affordable Care Act coverage. Read More >>
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Tracking The Uninsured Rate In 2019 And 2020
By Katie Keith (10/7/20)
Federal data show
that the uninsured rate has been rising since 2016 and rose again in 2019. New analyses of the uninsured population in 2019 show that consumers were struggling with coverage affordability even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and recent reports suggest a deepening affordability crisis in 2020. Read More >>
WOMEN’S HEALTH
How RBG’s Voice Shaped The Courts’—And America’s—Views On Women’s Health For A Generation
By Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler (10/8/20)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is known as an iconic US Supreme Court justice who championed women’s rights. A deeper dive into several of her opinions shows her specific impact on women’s health and describes how she meticulously cited the medical, public health, and
economic evidence while raising the voice of everyday women. Read More >>
PUBLIC HEALTH
Misunderstood: How Public Health's Inability To Communicate Keeps Communities Unhealthy
By Brian C. Castrucci, Ruth J. Katz, and Nat Kendall-Taylor (10/8/20)
FrameWorks Institute research finds that other sectors have a largely negative or at best a narrow perception of public health professionals. How can public health help leaders outside the field to appreciate the strategic and collaborative facets of public health? Public health professionals need to improve their communication skills—poor communication has been a longstanding problem—and strengthen cross-sector partnerships. In a pandemic such relationships are critically important. Read More >>
SYSTEMS OF CARE
Distributing Provider Financial Aid To Create A More Efficient, Equitable System
By Erica Socker, Alexandra Spratt, and Mark E. Miller (10/9/20)
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US health care system was already too expensive, too complex, and unfair to patients. While Congress provided funding to hospitals and other providers to help them weather this crisis, the billions of dollars poured into the system so far have largely served only to shore up a broken and unfair system. We are missing an opportunity to help shape the future health care system to be more efficient and equitable. Read More >>
MEDICAID
Policies To Enhance Care Of Out-Of-State Pediatric Medicaid Beneficiaries
By Nick Manetto, Joshua Greenberg, and Candace Reddy (10/6/20)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been allowing states to waive certain requirements for screening Medicaid and CHIP providers. These flexibilities, which can reduce delays in care, should be extended beyond the public health emergency, and a more permanent solution to streamlining provider screening and enrollment should be pursued. 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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