TODAY ON THE BLOG

RURAL HEALTH

Partnering With Law Enforcement To Improve Health Outcomes In Rural Communities
By Elizabeth Ruen, Fred Lamphere, and Wayne Booze

Many are unaware of rural law enforcement's critical role in caring for people—for example, when residents are experiencing mental health crises and heart attacks. The Helmsley Charitable Trust, which funds rural health care in a seven-state Upper Midwest region, recognized this role and launched two initiatives: Virtual Crisis Care (using telehealth) and Automatic External Defibrillators for Law Enforcement. With officers using these technologies, the initiatives' early results look promising. Read More >>

QUALITY OF CARE

New Clinical Coding Guidelines Account For Patients’ Social Risk: We Should Do More To Ensure They Advance Health Care Quality And Equity
By Laura M. Gottlieb and Sarah C. DeSilvey

The new Medicare and Medicaid coding guidelines for office visits are a big deal. Ensuring that they benefit the people who need them is a bigger one. It is clearer now that the federal government and the American Medical Association recognize the need to account for social factors in payment models, but we have more work to do to ensure that the guidelines lead to the delivery of high-quality care for all patients. Read More >>

MEDICARE

Remembering Phil Lee: A Life And Legacy To Be Thankful For
By Lauren LeRoy

Phil Lee’s tireless commitment to health and social justice spanned decades and touched lives far beyond those who knew him. His strength in the face of controversy, positive attitude, relentless energy, and generosity in making room for new and diverse voices made him a role model and inspiration for so many working in the field. Read More >>

GRANTWATCH MONTHLY ROUND-UP

How One Foundation Is Using Research To Enhance Its COVID-19 Response Grant Making
By Sophie Wheelock, Mark A. Zezza, and David Sandman (11/24/20)

Dedicating certain staffers and funding to research and analytics can help foundations target their grant making to those most in need and provide important information to grantees, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.The New York State Health Foundation, with a longstanding practice of doing research and data analysis, for example, analyzed near real-time US Census Bureau data to determine food scarcity trends in the state during the pandemic. Read More >>

Strengthening Family Caregiving Policies And Programs Through State Collaboration
By Courtney Roman, Rani Snyder, and Erica Brown (11/12/20)

Family caregiving provides a substantial savings to the health care system. Such caregiving is normally stressful but is even more so during a pandemic. Helping States Support Families Caring for an Aging America, an initiative that received funding from four foundations in its Phase I, helped six states to advance policy and program changes for family caregivers. Lessons learned included the importance of collecting and exchanging robust data about caregivers' role and value. Read More >>

What COVID-19 Exposed In Long-Term Care
By Karen Wolk Feinstein (11/5/20)

We cannot bring back those who have died in skilled nursing facilities during the pandemic, but we can honor them by implementing decisive and needed reforms for nursing facilities, says this author. A bipartisan opportunity now exists for humane reforms. The author, who heads a foundation, also describes its efforts to improve the long-term care system over the decades. Read More >>

A Business Case For Improving The Well-Being Of Essential Shift Workers
By Megan McHugh, Claude R. Maechling, and Jane L. Holl

Essential workers are more likely to do shift work—outside of traditional daytime work hours. Numerous studies have shown that such work is associated with higher rates of many chronic diseases. Such underlying conditions increase the risk for serious illness from COVID-19. A foundation-funded study estimated the health effects, and excess health care costs incurred per year, for 2,600 workers doing shift work at a manufacturing company. The authors have suggestions for employers relying on shift workers. Read More >>

IN THE JOURNAL

GRANTWATCH

Homelessness And Health: Funders See The Connection
By Lee L. Prina

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is hard for people experiencing homelessness to practice social distancing in a congregate setting, says one nonprofit's CEO. The November 2020 GrantWatch column contains a sampling of foundations' efforts around the US, pre- and post-pandemic, to eliminate housing instability. These ideas may be useful to other organizations if the possible "eviction tsunami," mentioned in a New York Times op-ed, comes at year's end. In Key Personnel Changes, read about the new managing director of the Kresge Foundation's Health Program and news of other foundations' key staffers. 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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