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The Commonwealth Fund Connection

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




April 16, 2021

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Stepping Up to Address the Maternal Health Crisis for Black Americans

For too many Black and Indigenous Americans, pregnancy and childbirth are prime examples of how our society and health care system fail to fully value them or their well-being. In Essence magazine, the Commonwealth Fund’s Laurie Zephyrin, M.D., describes how systemic racism has harmed the physical, mental, and spiritual health of Black and Indigenous Americans. With Black Maternal Health Week underway, she expresses optimism that coalitions of people of color can change the systems and structures that put them and their babies at risk.

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COVID-19


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For Asian Americans, a Dual Pandemic of COVID-19 and Racism

Asian Americans are now facing a dual pandemic: COVID-19 and a heightened fear of racist abuse. On The Dose podcast, Vivian Shaw and Susanna Park of the AAPI COVID-19 Project talk about the deep roots of anti-Asian bias in the United States, as well as their research into how the pandemic is affecting the lives of Asian Americans.

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Learning from Pandemic Responses Across Indian Country

The New York Times reported in mid-April on how the Navajo Nation
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has tamed COVID-19, noting the nation was averaging just 11 new cases per day, down from 250 in late November. Transforming Care recently
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looked at the strategies the Navajo Nation and other American Indian communities have used to slow the spread of the virus — from communitywide testing “blitzes” to the use of mobile health services and outreach to meet people’s basic needs.

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Will the Pandemic Lead the U.S. to Finally Strengthen Health IT?

Every state is facing its own set of difficulties getting COVID-19 vaccines into people’s arms. In an op-ed published by The Hill, Verily Life Sciences’ Vivian Lee, M.D., and the Commonwealth Fund’s Eric Schneider, M.D., argue that years of underinvestment in the nation’s digital health infrastructure has left the U.S. wholly unprepared to collect, report, and share health data effectively.

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State-Driven Initiatives to Support Value-Based Care in the COVID-19 Era

Last October, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy hosted a Commonwealth Fund–supported roundtable for senior state officials, national experts, and industry participants to discuss states’ role in accelerating the transition to value-based purchasing (VBP) post-COVID-19. Learn more about four key areas where state-driven strategies can standardize and streamline broader adoption of VBP.

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Other News


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Where Is Health Policy Headed in a Polarized U.S.?

Americans are deeply divided along party lines on key health care issues. In the print issue of JAMA (paywall) Harvard’s Robert Blendon and John Benson and the Commonwealth Fund’s Eric Schneider, M.D., analyze national polling data to get a read on the likely near-term direction of U.S. health policy. While Democrats and Republicans appear unified on defeating COVID-19 and reducing prescription drug prices, agreeing on a large reorganization of the health system is unlikely, the authors say.

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Can We Tell How Health Reforms Will Affect Household Spending?

Policymakers usually fail to account for how spending by individual households would change under different health reform proposals — even though such information is critical to fully assessing the full potential impact of changes. Experts from the Urban Institute offer new, objective measures of household financial burden that could help policymakers better understand whether proposed reforms would make health care either more or less affordable and how they would affect people’s use of health services.

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Can Changing the Public Charge Rule Improve the Health and Lives of Children?

The Trump administration’s changes to the so-called public charge rule made it more difficult for immigrants to get a green card if they’d received benefits from Medicaid, Medicare, and other programs. While the Biden administration has officially reversed those changes, the former policy’s chilling effect on immigrants’ use of public benefits will likely continue, say Arturo Vargas Bustamante and Sonja Diaz of UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Initiative. They argue that COVID-19 has made it even more important to increase immigrants’ trust and participation in public health benefit programs.

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Stepping Up to Address the Maternal Health Crisis for Black Americans

For too many Black and Indigenous Americans, pregnancy and childbirth are prime examples of how our society and health care system fail to fully value them or their well-being. In Essence magazine, the Commonwealth Fund’s Laurie Zephyrin, M.D., describes how systemic racism has harmed the physical, mental, and spiritual health of Black and Indigenous Americans. With Black Maternal Health Week underway, she expresses optimism that coalitions of people of color can change the systems and structures that put them and their babies at risk.

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Rollback of Medicaid Work Requirements Begins, But Supreme Court May Have a Say

The Biden administration has begun rolling back approval for Medicaid work requirement experiments in Arkansas and New Hampshire, but the Supreme Court may yet weigh in on the legality of the two demonstrations. Health care law expert Sara Rosenbaum analyzes the new administration’s arguments for withdrawing the approvals that had been granted by the Trump administration.

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How Has COVID-19 Affected Medicare Spending?

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a decline in in-person health care visits and spurred a rise in use of telemedicine. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Arnav Shah and colleagues explore what these changes mean for Medicare spending and what they may signify for patient care. Spending in traditional Medicare was lower across all age groups, with larger declines among white people compared with people of color and those not eligible for Medicaid.

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New Data Updates on Medicare Financing, Solvency, and Out-of-Pocket Costs

Did you know that the newest projections indicate the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will become insolvent as soon as 2026? On the Commonwealth Fund’s Medicare Data Hub, you’ll find easy-to-understand charts with new findings on such topics as: Medicare insolvency projections, out-of-pocket costs by type of service, a breakdown of current federal spending on Medicare, and underinsured rates among racial and ethnic groups.

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Bringing Patients into the Design of Health Care

For many health care organizations, “patient engagement” rarely means collaboration with patients in designing and implementing services. But what if patients were truly engaged? In Transforming Care we look at health care organizations and plans that are working with patients in meaningful ways. We found such approaches can not only help improve the effectiveness and safety of health care, but they can also reinvigorate staff, lead to creative problem-solving, and help patients recognize the role they play in their own health.

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How Should Insurers Pay for Prescription Drugs Backed by Limited Clinical Evidence?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has an accelerated-approval program that allows drugs to come to market quickly, without providing clear evidence of health benefits. Pharmaceutical policy expert Kristi Martin examines the program and offers recommendations for reforming it and lowering costs. Among the options she discusses are subjecting accelerated-approval drugs to government price negotiation and reducing reimbursement for ones that fail to complete postmarket studies within five years of FDA approval.

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Drug Company Mergers Have Consequences

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced it will work with regulators in Canada and the European Union to review its guidelines for evaluating drug company mergers. In a Washington Post op-ed, Robin Feldman, director of the University of California Hastings Law Center for Innovation, draws on her Commonwealth Fund–supported research to show how three waves of mergers since the late 1980s have dramatically consolidated the pharmaceutical industry. The result? Reduced drug innovation, fewer treatment options, and higher drug prices.

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Check Out Our New Instagram Account Focused on Health Equity

Health care in the United States has long been marked by racism and discrimination, leading to the widespread inequities we see today in access, quality, and outcomes for people of color — and COVID-19 has only exacerbated these disparities. But people across the nation are advocating for new policies and practices while also bringing their personal experiences into conversations about racial justice. The Commonwealth Fund’s new Instagram account is intended to contribute to these conversations.

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