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A Weekly Health Policy Round Up From Health Affairs            

**February 7, 2021**

IN THE JOURNAL

NEW ISSUE:
VITAL DIRECTIONS, QUALITY & MORE

The February issue of

**Health Affairs** contains studies about racial disparities in
mortality during COVID-19, physicians' unequal treatment of people
with disabilities, the Affordable Care Act's impact on cancer
detection, and policy aspects of Medicare and Medicaid. It also includes
a cluster of articles produced in partnership with the National Academy
of Medicine's Vital Directions for Health and Health Care 2021
project.

Read the February 2021 table of contents.

Read"From the Editor-in-Chief."

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THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

COVID-19

Workers With COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects Deserve Time Off To Recover

By Dorit Rubinstein Reiss and Arthur L. Caplan (2/5/21)

COVID-19 vaccines have high rates of temporary and unpleasant, sometimes
debilitating-but not dangerous-side effects. That means the
recipient's immune system is vigorously responding to the vaccine, but
vaccine recipients may need to take a couple of days to rest. Read More
>>

****

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An Alternative Vaccine Strategy To Reduce COVID-19 Morbidity And
Mortality

By Michael H. Criqui and Robert M. Kaplan (2/4/21)

Although we understand the argument for sticking with the original
COVID-19 vaccine schedule, we worry that analysts have concentrated on
the risks of deviating from the prescribed schedule while ignoring the
risks of adhering to it. Read More >>

Equity Metrics: Toward A More Effective And Inclusive Pandemic Response

By Priya B. Shete, Jason Vargo, Alice Hm Chen, and Kirsten
Bibbins-Domingo (2/3/21)

As COVID-19 vaccine distribution scales up, health equity
metrics-rooted in place-based social vulnerability indices-should be
used to guide local vaccine allocation and monitoring. Read More >>

Expanded Coverage For COVID-19 Testing Must Include Limits On Costs

By Loren Adler and Sabrina Corlette

Mandating that insurers cover more COVID-19 tests without cost sharing
is a welcome policy change, but a few gaps remain that likely require
congressional legislation to address. Read More >>

To Improve COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution, Engage Behavioral Health
Providers

By Jonathan D. Brown (2/2/21)

As states refine their plans to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, they
should engage behavioral health providers to develop strategies to reach
the populations they serve. Read More >>

FOLLOWING THE ACA

ACA Litigation Round-Up: A Status Check

By Katie Keith (2/1/21)

Even as attention shifts to the executive and legislative branches, the
judiciary will continue to play a significant role in ACA
implementation. As we begin a new year, this post provides a status
update on the many ACA lawsuits to keep an eye on. Read More >>

SUBSTANCE USE

New Interventions To Address Substance Use Disorder Must Take Financial
Sustainability Into Account

By Dominic Hodgkin, Constance M. Horgan, Maureen Stewart, and Stephanie
Jordan Brown (2/5/21)

If new interventions are not financially sustainable, they might not be
maintained in the organizations testing them and might not be taken up
by the wider health care system-which means that they won't have any
lasting impact on the opioid epidemic or substance use more generally.
Read More >>

HEALTH EQUITY

Philanthropy's Increased Focus On Health Equity Post-COVID-19

By Cara James (2/4/21)

Most of the foundation executives and program staff surveyed by
Grantmakers In Health said that since March 2020 (when COVID-19 started
to flare up in the US), their health equity programming has changed or
will change. Respondents also talked about their foundations'
initiatives on diversity, equity, and inclusion, right in their own
organizations. The most common challenge reported was getting their
boards of trustees' support for these external and internal equity
efforts. Read More >>

MEDICAID

Strategic Priorities For The Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services
To Advance Medicaid Reform

By Amol S. Navathe, Mark B. McClellan, Christopher Chen, Judy Zerzan,
Julian Harris, Bob Kocher (2/1/21)

There is tremendous opportunity to improve the health and well-being of
Medicaid beneficiaries while improving health care outcomes, equity, and
the stability of state budgets. There are several reasons, described
here, why CMS should be assertive in supporting greater Medicaid reform.
Read More >>

PHARMACEUTICALS & MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Helping Consumers Afford Prescription Drugs: An Antitrust Agenda For The
New Congress

By Michael A. Carrier (2/1/21)

Enactment of bipartisan antitrust legislation targeting pay-for-delay
settlements, product hopping, patent thickets, and citizen petitions
would be an important and practical next step to lower prescription drug
costs for all Americans. Read More >>

MEDICARE

Rating The Medicare Advantage Star Ratings-Improving The Status Quo

By Soleil Shah and Eric Sun (2/4/21)

As Medicare Advantage enrollment rises, the star ratings system will be
an increasingly important tool for helping Medicare patients access
high-quality health coverage.
Read More >>

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**FAST TRACK AHEAD OF PRINT**

COVID-19 VACCINE DEVELOPMENT MODELS

How New Models Of Vaccine Development For COVID-19 Have Helped Address
An Epic Public Health Crisis

By David E. Bloom, Daniel Cadarette, Maddalena Ferranna, Randall N.
Hyer, and Daniel L. Tortorice

David Bloom and coauthors analyze how deployment of substantial
financial and human resources, expanded and novel forms of cooperation,
and a range of innovations have contributed to the development of
COVID-19 vaccines in record time. Read More >>

Reflections On Governance, Communication, And Equity: Challenges And
Opportunities In COVID-19 Vaccination

By Daniel Salmon, Douglas J. Opel, Matthew Z. Dudley, Janesse Brewer,
and Robert Breiman

Daniel Salmon and coauthors characterize public perceptions during the
roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine and the impact on vaccine informed
decision making, the potential for vaccine equity to help address
underlying health disparities, vulnerabilities of the vaccine program,
and the role of health care providers and science to affect vaccine
decision making and communications. Read More >>

The COVID-19 Innovation System

By Bhaven N. Sampat and Kenneth C. Shadlen

Bhaven Sampat and coauthors take stock of the key features of the
COVID-19 innovation system, and ask whether this model is useful only
for crisis times or whether biomedical innovation policy in "normal"
times might productively incorporate some elements of the COVID-19
model. Read More >>

OPIOID USE DISORDER

Admission Practices And Cost Of Care For Opioid Use Disorder At
Residential Addiction Treatment Programs In The US

By Tamara Beetham, Brendan Saloner, Marema Gaye, Sarah E. Wakeman,
Richard G. Frank, and Michael Lawrence Barnett

Tamara Beetham and coauthors audited 368 residential addiction treatment
programs in the US. They find that 65 percent of for-profit programs use
one or more aggressive recruitment techniques compared with only 9
percent of nonprofit programs. Read More >>

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HEALTH AFFAIRS PODCAST

Auditing The Admission Practices For Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview Tamara
Beetham, a PhD student in the Department of Health Policy and Management
at Yale School of Medicine, on the admission practices and costs of care
for opioid use disorder at US rehab facilities.

Listen here.

QUALITY

Higher Medicare Advantage Star Ratings Are Associated With Improvements
In Patient Outcomes

By David J. Meyers, Amal N. Trivedi, Ira B. Wilson, Vincent Mor, and
Momotazur Rahman

David Meyers and coauthors use data from a natural experiment to
quantify the degree to which Medicare Advantage plans with higher star
ratings provide better care.
Read More >>

Variation In Emergency Department Admission Rates Among Medicare
Patients: Does The Physician Matter?

By Peter B. Smulowitz, A. James O'Malley, Lawrence Zaborski, J.
Michael McWilliams, and Bruce E. Landon

Peter Smulowitz and coauthors describe physician-level variation in
emergency department admission rates for Medicare fee-for-service
patients. Read More >>

CONSIDERING HEALTH SPENDING

Annual Out-Of-Pocket Spending Clusters Within Short Time Intervals:
Implications For Health Care Affordability

By Steven Chen, Paul R. Shafer, Stacie B. Dusetzina, and Michal Horný

Steven Chen of Emory University and coauthors analyze the distribution
of out-of-pocket spending throughout the year to draw insights about the
implications for health care affordability. Read More >>

Beyond The High Prices Of Prescription Drugs: A Framework To Assess
Costs, Resource Allocation, And Public Funding

By Jonathan J. Darrow and Donald W. Light

Jonathan J. Darrow of Harvard Medical School and Donald W. Light of the
Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine provide a comprehensive
framework for legislators and scholars to use in assessing the total
societal costs of drugs. Read More >>

These articles appear in the series Considering Health Spending
.

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What Is And Isn't In The Biden Executive Order On Medicaid And The ACA

Listen to Rob Lott, Chris Fleming, and Katie Keith discuss the Biden
administration's executive order on Medicaid and the Affordable Care
Act.

Listen here.

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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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