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The Commonwealth Fund Connection

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




June 25, 2021

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COVID-19


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COVID-19 Underscores Fault Lines in Medicare Program
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on Medicare beneficiaries and highlighted fault lines within the program. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Aimee Cicchiello and Gretchen Jacobson point to some of the gaps in coverage and identify opportunities for improvement. Racial disparities, for example, have deepened. And people in nursing homes, where more than one-third of COVID-19 deaths occurred, have suffered disproportionately as well.

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Telemedicine Use Expanded Quickly During COVID-19. Now What?
To maintain access to health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, many states took actions to increase private insurance coverage of telemedicine. What will telemedicine’s role be going forward? For a new Commonwealth Fund brief, Georgetown University’s JoAnn Volk and colleagues reviewed health insurance statutes, emergency orders, and regulatory guidance from the start of the pandemic through mid-March 2021. Learn about states’ approaches to telemedicine coverage and key policy considerations for the future.

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Did Medicare’s Expanded Coverage of Telehealth Have an Impact on Beneficiaries?
How did Medicare’s expanded coverage of telemedicine services during the pandemic change beneficiaries’ care-seeking behavior? The latest analysis of Medicare claims data by CareJourney and the Commonwealth Fund finds that, despite a substantial increase in telehealth visits during 2020, 87 percent of patient visits for traditional Medicare beneficiaries were in-person, with 13 percent through telehealth. Learn more by viewing
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these charts. And be sure to visit the other sections of the
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Medicare Data Hub for the latest Medicare research and analysis.

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New Poll Explores Why Millions of Americans Haven’t Gotten the COVID-19 Vaccine
What is keeping so many people from taking the COVID-19 vaccine? The African American Research Collaborative and the Commonwealth Fund explore the reasons in a new poll of more than 12,000 Americans and the largest sample of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans in any COVID-19 vaccine uptake study. As the public health community works to convince unvaccinated Americans to change their minds, another challenge looms. Asked whether they’d take an annual COVID booster shot if needed, fewer than half of all adults — vaccinated and unvaccinated — said they definitely would.

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Beyond Vaccines: How Can We Prevent the Next Pandemic?
Many Americans have started to behave as if the pandemic is over, but large numbers of people remain unvaccinated. At the same time, other parts of the world are experiencing their worst COVID-19 surges yet. On the season finale of The Dose podcast, Sandro Galea, M.D., physician, epidemiologist, and dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, talks about what it will take to vaccinate the entire world and how we can protect ourselves from future pandemics.

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Other Recent Publications


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The ACA Survives Its Latest Challenge, but Work Remains to Get More People Covered
In a 7-to-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaving the law intact. The decision “further cements the law as a cornerstone of our health system,” say the Commonwealth Fund’s Sara Collins and Gabriella Aboulafia on To the Point. They highlight the ACA’s achievements while pointing out remaining areas of concern and potential improvements. The authors say it’s up to Congress to act now to help more Americans obtain affordable, comprehensive health insurance.

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Jost: The ACA Is Not Going Away Any Time Soon
The Supreme Court rejected the latest Republican-led effort to dismantle the ACA. After surviving three trips to the Court and intense repeal efforts in Congress, the ACA seems solidly entrenched in American law. Legal expert Timothy S. Jost reviews the case, the latest ruling, and what may come next. “It is now time to improve on the ACA rather than fear its demise,” he says.

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What’s to Be Done About Lowered Rates of Routine Childhood Immunizations?
A
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new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that routine childhood immunizations — MMR and HPV vaccinations — were still down compared with prepandemic levels. Children behind on their shots for preventable diseases could pose a “serious public health threat” when they return to school this fall, the CDC says. In March, the Commonwealth Fund’s Martha Hostetter and Sarah Klein wrote about
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efforts by pediatric practices to encourage families to come into the office for immunizations and other preventive care.



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Building a Better Mental Health Care System in the U.S.
More Americans than ever are struggling with anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges, and it’s clear that better care systems are needed to address their problems. In a Commonwealth Fund roundtable discussion with four leading experts, Sarah Klein and Martha Hostetter explore what it would take to expand access to mental health treatment for people with mild or moderate problems and what we can learn from effective care models used in other countries.

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Would an Inflation Rebate Penalty for Drug Companies Help Rein in Prices?
Over the past 20 years, prices of brand-name drugs in Medicare Part D have risen at more than twice the rate of inflation. A new Commonwealth Fund explainer sheds light on how an inflation-based rebate penalty for drug companies could help bring price increases under control. As proposed for Medicare Parts B and D in two recent congressional bills, a rebate penalty would require pharmaceutical manufacturers to pay Medicare an extra amount when a drug’s price rises faster than the consumer price index.

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