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The

Commonwealth

Fund Connection

A roundup of recent Fund publications, charts, multimedia, and other timely content.


September 18, 2019

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What's New


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How Will Medicaid Work Requirements Affect Hospitals’ Finances?

It turns out that Medicaid work requirements affect more than just the people enrolled in the program. In assessing the potential financial impact on hospitals in states with work requirement waivers, Randy Haught and colleagues with Dobson | DaVanzo found that fewer covered Medicaid beneficiaries will mean reduced hospital revenues, increased uncompensated care costs, and smaller operating margins for these providers. And rural hospitals, already closing at alarming rates, are likely to be hit hardest.

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TOP TWEET


A “work requirements” program in Arkansas to improve health and increase employment led to thousands of people losing health insurance and other unintended consequences.


@Commonwealthfnd
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Medicare and Medicaid


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Medicare Part D Proposals Aim to Increase Affordability

A number of federal agencies are considering changes to the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit to alleviate financial burdens on beneficiaries. With Commonwealth Fund support, Stacie Dusetzina, associate professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and colleagues examined three ways to redesign the Part D benefit for the New England Journal of Medicine.

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The Dose: Making Medicaid Contingent on Work Requirements

In the newest episode of our podcast The Dose, Benjamin Sommers, M.D., a professor of health policy and economics at the Harvard School of Public Health, talks to host Shanoor Seervai about what happened to health coverage and employment in Arkansas when the state became the first to implement work requirements for Medicaid enrollees.

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Access and Coverage


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Rhode Island Is the “Most Improved” State on Health Care

In the Commonwealth Fund’s 2019 Scorecard on State Health System Performance, Rhode Island ranked seventh among states and also made the most improvement from the previous year. In a new To the Point post, Michelle Alletto of the Milbank Memorial Fund and Rhode Island health insurance commissioner Marie Ganim discuss the steps the state took to lower its uninsured rate and reduce fatal opioid overdoses among people leaving prison.

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Small Businesses Are Open to a Range of Solutions to High Health Care Costs

Many small businesses are dealing with the rising cost of health coverage by shifting more costs onto their workers. But new research shows that what employers really want are pragmatic solutions that allow them to cover their workers at an affordable cost. In a new issue brief, analysts with Public Private Strategies report on small employers’ appetite for change and new policies that might garner their support.

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Combatting High Health Care Prices: Options for States

As the Commonwealth Fund’s Lovisa Gustafsson and Audrey McIntosh explain on To the Point, states can be key players in reducing high prices for health care services. Read their post to learn how states are leveraging their roles in administering and financing public programs like Medicaid and purchasing and regulating private insurance to wring greater value out of health care dollars.

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Delivery System Reform


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How Health Care Innovators Can Learn from Setbacks

While it may be true that failure is essential to innovation, few health care organizations use setbacks as learning opportunities to help them achieve their goals of improving health and reducing cost. In a new report, researchers Sarah Klein, Martha Hostetter, and Douglas McCarthy share lessons from innovators who overcame obstacles to implementing new ways of delivering care. Among their recommendations: strive to understand why some patients don’t benefit from an intervention, know when to shake up staffing, and find common ground with payers on measuring and rewarding success.

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NEJM Catalyst Podcast: Why Big Tech Is Taking on Health Care

Big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google see the health care sector as ripe for disruption. Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal, M.D., joins Robert Galvin, M.D., M.B.A., chief executive officer for Equity Healthcare, in a podcast for NEJM Catalyst about what this could mean for patients and doctors.

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Prescription Drugs


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Can Physicians Help Reduce Wasteful Drug Spending?

A recent survey found that physicians might be willing to drive their patients toward higher-value, lower-cost medications. But to alter their prescribing practices, doctors will need easier access to information — particularly on costs to patients and the total costs of drugs. Lauren Vela of the Pacific Business Group on Health discusses these and other findings on To the Point.

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International Health Policy and Practice Innovations


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International Health News Brief

This roundup of health news stories from around the world reports on burnout among French physicians; a drop in private health coverage among Australians; pay-for-outcomes for immunotherapy drugs in Germany; and more.

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Announcements


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Seeking New Medicare Vice President

The Commonwealth Fund is recruiting a new vice president to lead our Advancing Medicare initiative and coordinate its activities with work undertaken by the Fund’s other programs. Successful candidates for this New York City–based or Washington, D.C.–based position will have a doctoral degree or equivalent in a field related to health services research, health policy, or health economics, as well as a minimum of eight years of related work experience at the state and national level. The full job description is available on the Commonwealth Fund website.

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Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.

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