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The Commonwealth Fund Connection

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




May 14, 2021

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COVID-19


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Innovations in Maternity Care During COVID-19

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many hardships, it also has spurred innovations in an already-stressed maternity care system. Members of the Health Care Transformation Task Force discuss maternity care innovations highlighted in
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a new report supported by the Commonwealth Fund. Three case studies focus on use of telehealth for prenatal care visits, virtual doula care, and self-advocacy training for people giving birth.

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READ MORE

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Latin America’s COVID-19 Crisis and Implications for the Rest of the World

The COVID-19 crisis in Latin America is worsening, even in those countries that had previously kept the virus at bay or were making headway in vaccination. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Shanoor Seervai and Arnav Shah argue that an uncontrolled outbreak in Latin America will have a serious impact on the rest of the world. Regional factors like weak and underresourced health systems, deep social inequality, and political instability are playing major roles in the crisis, the authors say.

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The Dose: Why Immigrants Should Have Health Care

Migrants have been crossing the border between Mexico and the United States in record numbers this year, and many are unaccompanied children. Once they make it to the U.S., what happens when they need health care? On the latest episode of The Dose podcast, Carrie Byington, M.D., of University of California Health, explains. She draws on her expertise as a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist, as well as her personal experience treating immigrants and their families, to highlight the urgent public health need for getting immigrants care during the pandemic.

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Leveraging Primary Care to Increase COVID-19 Vaccinations

While a third of Americans are now protected against COVID-19, the daily pace of vaccinations has plateaued. Concerns about vaccine hesitancy have been widely reported, but issues of access receive less attention. In a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspective,” researchers report on findings from a March survey which suggest that more than half of people who haven’t received the vaccine are still open to it. The authors say that many are willing if it involves minimal effort, while others prefer to get the shot where they usually seek care, like their primary care provider’s office.

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Other Recent Publications


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President Biden’s First 100 Days: Health Care Coverage

Since moving quickly to manage the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has pivoted to its ambitious agenda for health care coverage. Timothy S. Jost and Mark Regan examine President Biden’s coverage-related executive orders, administrative actions, regulatory initiatives, and litigation. They also discuss how the administration is approaching health care cases currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Making Permanent the American Rescue Plan’s Marketplace Premium Assistance

The American Rescue Plan dramatically increases the premium assistance that the federal government provides to people covered by health plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces — but only temporarily. If Congress were to make this assistance permanent, says Georgetown University’s Justin Giovannelli, states would have more flexibility to address other barriers to affordable health care. He argues that states could use the ACA’s Section 1332 “innovation waiver” program to pursue other opportunities, like a public plan option in the individual market.

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Federal Investigations into Skyrocketing Drug Prices

Following an investigation of 12 pharmaceutical companies’ pricing practices, the House Oversight and Reform Committee released five reports and held two hearings with several company officials. Next week the committee will hold a third hearing with the CEO of drugmaker AbbVie. Drug policy expert Kristi Martin provides highlights of the 18-month investigation and previews the AbbVie report and hearing, which will likely explore if the company used the patent system to block competition for two of its most profitable drugs.

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Improving Antitrust Oversight Across the Health Care Sector

Rapidly increasing consolidation across the health care industry over the past two decades has led to higher prices without improvements in quality or efficiency. To date, federal antitrust measures have proved inadequate at preventing the anticompetitive effects of mergers and acquisitions among hospitals and other health care organizations. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Aimee Cicchiello and Lovisa Gustafsson examine the weaknesses in antitrust oversight. To strengthen it, they recommend widening federal authorities’ scope beyond price to include factors like consumer welfare.

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READ MORE
AMA Publishes Strategic Plan on Racial Justice and Health Equity

This week, the American Medical Association (AMA) published a
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strategic plan on racial justice and health equity, highlighting work by the organization to examine its own racist history and find ways to dismantle racism in the organization and in the U.S. health care system. The Commonwealth Fund’s Martha Hostetter and Sarah Klein reported previously on how some health care providers are working to reduce health disparities by
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confronting racism in health care head on , and more recently on how some are working to
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build trust with Black patients .





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