View Message in Browser

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

mailto:[email protected]

[link removed]

A Weekly Health Policy Round Up From Health Affairs            

**January 10, 2021**

[link removed]

IN THE JOURNAL

NEW ISSUE:
COVID-19 RESPONSE, MEDICAID & MORE

The January issue of Health Affairs includes a group of articles focused
on COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, as well as a range of other
topics including the effects of insurance coverage expansions, how much
people are willing to pay for higher-quality care, and some data on
surprise billing.

Read the January 2021 table of contents.

Read "From the Editor-in-Chief."

COVID-19

An Overview Of Vaccine Development, Approval, And Regulation, With
Implications For COVID-19

By Aaron S. Kesselheim, Jonathan J. Darrow, Martin Kulldorff, Beatrice
L. Brown, Mayookha Mitra-Majumdar, ChangWon C. Lee, Osman Moneer, and
Jerry Avorn

Aaron Kesselheim and coauthors review the extensive process followed by
the Food and Drug Administration in approving a vaccine and point out
the unique benefit-risk balance necessitated by "the fact that the new
product will be administered to very large numbers of healthy people in
a short period of time." Read More >>

COVID-19 Vaccine To Vaccination: Why Leaders Must Invest In Delivery
Strategies Now

By Rebecca L. Weintraub, Laura Subramanian, Ami Karlage, Iman Ahmad, and
Julie Rosenberg

Rebecca Weintraub and coauthors point out that "the COVID-19 vaccine
portfolio requires urgent, unprecedented investment in the delivery
strategies and systems needed to generate vaccine demand and facilitate
vaccine allocation, distribution, and verification of coverage." Read
More >>

Clinical Outcomes Of A COVID-19 Vaccine: Implementation Over Efficacy

By A. David Paltiel, Jason L. Schwartz, Amy Zheng, and Rochelle P.
Walensky

David Paltiel and coauthors use modeling to show that vaccine
distribution and uptake, along with levels of community infection
leading up to administration, will have at least as much influence on
the ultimate burden of COVID-19 as the effectiveness of the vaccine
itself.
Read More >>

Consideration Of Value-Based Pricing For Treatments And Vaccines Is
Important, Even In The COVID-19 Pandemic

By Peter J. Neumann, Joshua T. Cohen, David D. Kim, and Daniel A.
Ollendorf

Peter Neumann and coauthors argue that "robust and sound value
assessments to inform product prices can help ensure that tests,
treatments, and vaccines are available for this crisis and for crises
yet to come." Read More >>

Ensuring Equitable Access To COVID-19 Vaccines In The US: Current System
Challenges And Opportunities

By Angela K. Shen, Richard Hughes IV, Erica DeWald, Sara Rosenbaum, Amy
Pisani, and Walt Orenstein

Angela Shen and coauthors describe the multiple steps necessary to
achieve the goal of equitable access to vaccines in the US. Read More >>

Increased Intensity Of PCR Testing Reduced COVID-19 Transmission Within
Countries During The First Pandemic Wave

By Ravindra Prasan Rannan-Eliya, Nilmini Wijemunige, J. R. N. A.
Gunawardana, Sarasi N. Amarasinghe, Ishwari Sivagnanam, Sachini Fonseka,
Yasodhara Kapuge, and Chathurani P. Sigera

Ravindra Prasan Rannan-Eliya and coauthors analyze data from 173
countries and territories around the world and find that higher rates of
testing are correlated with much lower rates of COVID-19 transmission.
Read More >>

CONSIDERING HEALTH SPENDING

Arbitration Over Out-Of-Network Medical Bills: Evidence From New Jersey
Payment Disputes

By Benjamin L. Chartock, Loren Adler, Bich Ly, Erin Duffy, and Erin
Trish

Seeking to resolve the issue of surprise medical bills, in 2018 New
Jersey implemented a final-offer arbitration system to resolve payment
disputes. Benjamin L. Chartock and coauthors investigate a full year's
worth of data and compare it to Medicare and commercial insurance claims
data to determine the effectiveness if Congress followed suit. Read More
>>

This article appears in the series Considering Health Spending
.

National Health Care Spending In 2019: Steady Growth For The Fourth
Consecutive Year

By Anne B. Martin, Micah Hartman, David Lassman, Aaron Catlin, and The
National Health
Expenditure Accounts Team

An analysis from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that in 2019 health care spending
in the United States increased 4.6 percent to $3.8 trillion, or $11,582
per person. The 4.6 percent growth rate in 2019 was similar to the rate
in 2018 (4.7 percent) and was consistent with the average annual
spending growth rate of 4.5 percent that has been observed since 2016.
Faster growth in personal health care spending was offset by a decline
in the net cost of health insurance. Read More >>

[link removed]

HEALTH AFFAIRS PODCAST

Value-Based Care Isn't Transforming Health Care Spending

Alan Weil, Sherry Glied

In this week's episode of A Health Podyssey, Alan Weil invites Sherry
Glied, dean of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at
New York University, to the program to discuss the relationship between
administrative costs and high health care prices.

Listen to Sherry Glied share why she thinks value-based care won't be
transformational and how public health is a desirable field to go into
now.

Listen here.

[link removed]

THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

COVID-19

Prescription Drug Policy: The Year In Review, And The Year Ahead

By Rachel Sachs (1/7/21)

To effectively confront the health and economic crises facing the nation
now and into the future, maintaining a robust Medicaid program is
essential. No other public program has the reach and power to affect
population health that Medicaid does, particularly for historically poor
and oppressed communities. Time is of the essence to rebuild and
preserve Medicaid as a source of hope and help, not one of frustration
and fear. Read More >> 

FOLLOWING THE ACA
What A Democratic Congress Means For The ACA

By Katie Keith (1/7/21)

With the Senate runoff elections now complete in Georgia, Democrats will
control the White House and both chambers of Congress. This post
attempts a first pass at what this trifecta of Democratic control might
mean for the Affordable Care Act and coverage expansion, with an
emphasis on the use of the budget reconciliation process and the
Congressional Review Act.
Read More >>

COSTS & SPENDING

State Policies To Make Health Care More Affordable During COVID-19 And
Beyond

By Roslyn Murray, Suzanne Delbanco, and Jaime King (1/8/21)

State experiences with policies to control the growth of total health
care costs or regulate hospital pricing can offer helpful insights in
efforts to moderate health care prices during and after the pandemic.
Policy makers will need to navigate the unique policy and political
considerations in their states to find solutions that effectively tackle
the price issue while addressing the needs of all health care
stakeholders. Read More >>

SYSTEMS OF CARE

The Perils Of PECOS: Using Medicare Administrative Data To Answer
Important Policy Questions About Health Care Markets

By M. Susan Ridgely, Cheryl L. Damberg, Mark Totten, and José J.
Escarce (1/7/21)

We do not know as much as we should about health systems, and current
efforts to document the relationships among health care providers are
hampered by significant limitations in existing data sources. Read More
>>
  

HEALTH PHILANTHROPY

The Five Most-Read GrantWatch Blog Posts Of 2020

By Lee-Lee Prina (1/6/21)

These five posts-including two, not surprisingly, on COVID-19-were
the most read during this past year in our section on health
philanthropy. Read More >>

HEALTH CARE FINANCE

How Can State Legislation Promote Value In Health Care? Three Innovative
Models

By Roslyn Murray, Suzanne F. Delbanco, and Jaime S. King (1/6/21)

A small number of states have made progress in advancing value-based
payment through legislation to create Medicaid accountable care
organizations (ACOs) and establish new regulatory authorities. These
initiatives can serve as helpful models for new state efforts to support
the sustainability of physician practices, ease the pandemic-induced
strain on state budgets, and improve health care value for all who use
and pay for health care services.
Read More >>

Supporting Health Care Competition In The Era Of COVID-19: Three
Legislative Models For States

By Roslyn Murray, Suzanne F. Delbanco, and Jaime S. King (1/4/21)

As demand for office visits and elective procedures has declined during
the pandemic, independent physicians and hospitals have suffered
unprecedented revenue losses that make them vulnerable to foreclosure or
acquisition by large health systems. As a result, provider consolidation
could accelerate and access to care may be diminished. States with bans
on anticompetitive contract clauses, certificate of public advantage
legislation, and modified scope-of-practice laws are better positioned
to mitigate the effects of consolidation.
Read More >>

LEGAL & REGULATORY ISSUES

Coverage Provisions In The 2021 Appropriations And COVID-19 Stimulus
Package

By Katie Keith (1/4/21)

On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed a legislative package that
appropriated more than $1.4 trillion for fiscal year 2021 and included
$900 billion for pandemic relief. The wide-ranging legislation addresses
many important health-related policies and programs. This post focuses
on the bill's coverage-related provisions. Read More >>

PAYMENT
Despite Early Success, Vermont's All-Payer Waiver Faces Persistent
Implementation Challenges: Lessons From The First Four Years

By Adam Atherly, Eline van den Broek-Altenburg, Stephen Leffler, and
Claude Deschamps (1/5/21)

There have been a number of notable initial successes with Vermont's
all-payer model. All hospitals in the state now participate, as do more
than half of primary care providers. However, there are a number of
practical challenges to implementing an all-payer program statewide.
Read More >>

HEALTH AFFAIRS BRANDED POST

Study Shows Improved Outcomes
In
Medicare Advantage As Compared To Traditional Fee-for-Service Medicare

By Allyson Y. Schwartz (1/5/21)
Supported by Better Medicare Alliance

As Medicare Advantage now exceeds 40 percent of all Medicare enrollment,
and with continued robust growth year over year, interest in quality and
cost as compared to traditional fee-for-service Medicare grows as well.
Read More >>

[link removed]

Health Policy On The Table In 2021 With Democratic Congress

Listen to editors Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott start 2021 by discussing
the Georgia runoff election, the fall of Haven, the coverage provisions
in the 2021 appropriations and COVID-19 stimulus package, and what it
all means for health policy.

Listen here.

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

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.

Health Affairs, 7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, United States

Privacy Policy

To unsubscribe from this email, click here
.                 
                                               
                        I
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

Health Affairs, 7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, United States