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The

Commonwealth

Fund Connection

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


December 18, 2020

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COVID-19


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States’ COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts Require More Federal Support

Now that the first COVID-19 vaccine is making its way to frontline providers, state and local public health agencies will be largely responsible for broad vaccination of the American public. On To the Point, Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., Mark McClellan, M.D., and colleagues say an additional $8.4 billion in federal funds are needed to support an effective and equitable vaccine rollout, but so far only $200 million has been allocated to states.

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READ MORE
Palliative Care During the Pandemic

A recent
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JAMA “Viewpoint” outlines the barriers to providing good end-of-life care during the pandemic and what policies are needed to promote symptom relief and comfort for patients. The Commonwealth Fund’s Martha Hostetter, Sarah Klein, and Mekdes Tsega highlighted in a recent
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feature article how palliative care providers have enabled sick and frail people to shelter safely at home and have stepped in to support COVID-19–positive patients and their clinicians in ICUs.




Other Recent Publications


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Congress Close to Passing Law on Surprise Medical Bills

Congress has reached agreement on comprehensive legislation to protect consumers from surprise medical bills, which means millions of people could soon be held harmless when treated by out-of-network providers through no fault of their own. Georgetown University’s Jack Hoadley and colleagues describe how the No Surprises Act could usher in historic protections for millions of Americans while promoting financial stability and reducing costs.

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Medicare Gets Ready for “Geo”

Medicare’s new Geographic Direct Contracting Model, known as “Geo,” could represent the most significant change to the program in decades. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Gretchen Jacobson, Elizabeth Fowler, and Melinda Abrams describe how managed care plans, health care delivery systems, and accountable care organizations will be responsible for the quality of care beneficiaries in traditional Medicare receive and the costs they incur for inpatient, outpatient, and physician services.

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Removing the “Firewall” Between Employer Insurance and Marketplace Coverage

Over the past decade, premiums and deductibles in U.S. employer health plans have grown faster than wages — and the COVID-19 recession may be worsening the trend. The Commonwealth Fund’s Jesse Baumgartner and colleagues analyze one proposed solution to make health care more affordable: removing the “firewall” between employer plans and the ACA marketplaces. Allowing lower-income workers with employer coverage to buy marketplace plans and qualify for premium subsidies could provide substantial financial relief to many families, the authors say.

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What We Know About Maternal Mortality in the U.S.

Between 2000 and 2017, rates of maternal mortality declined worldwide — but not in the United States, where deaths rose significantly. What’s more, racial disparities are stark. In a new brief, Boston University’s Eugene Declercq and the Commonwealth Fund’s Laurie Zephyrin, M.D., offer a primer on maternal mortality in the U.S. They posit that a decades-long focus on improving hospital maternity care may have diminished the importance of community-based care and overlooked persistent racial and ethnic disparities.

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What the New Administration Can Do First to Strengthen Medicaid

When President-elect Biden and his team take office, they will have broad powers to help strengthen Medicaid. George Washington University’s Sara Rosenbaum recommends several steps the new administration should consider for enhancing Medicaid: increase states’ flexibility for Medicaid pandemic response; end Medicaid work requirements; encourage Medicaid expansion and halt block-grant experiments; and rescind the “public charge” policy.

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READ MORE





Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.

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