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The Commonwealth Fund Connection

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




October 1, 2021

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COVID-19


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Want More People to Take the Vaccine? Rhea Boyd Says Confront Racism in Health Care
Even as the Delta variant rages in many places, many Americans have not received a COVID-19 vaccine. The reasons are complex, but for Black and Latinx communities, a long history of poor access to health care has been a tall barrier. On the first episode of our new season of The Dose podcast, host Shanoor Seervai talks to Rhea Boyd, M.D., a pediatrician and public health advocate, about what it will take to dismantle the historic racism that has long prevented people of color from getting the health care they need. If we make it a national priority, Boyd says, we can ensure Black and Latinx people get credible information about the vaccines and easy access to them.

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READ MORE

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Adapting Health Care Delivery During a Public Health Crisis: Lessons from Around the World
Many public health and health care delivery systems in the U.S. were unprepared and, at least initially, slow to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new Commonwealth Fund report, NORC’s Caroline Pearson and colleagues explore how delivery systems around the world have adapted and how their experiences could inform future U.S. policy with regard to staffing, access to care, decision-making, use of data, and communication.

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READ MORE

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States to Wind Down Special Medicaid Operations Once COVID Emergency Ends
As the pandemic continues, it’s unclear when states will need to wind down their special Medicaid program operations, which have helped millions of people get and stay enrolled in coverage. George Washington University’s Sara Rosenbaum discusses the Biden administration’s new guidance to lengthen the wind-down period, which allows states to use current information to redetermine Medicaid eligibility and help people losing coverage reenroll in other programs.

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States Should Prepare Now to Avoid Massive Medicaid Coverage Losses
When the officially declared public health emergency ends, states will begin redetermining eligibility for nearly all 80 million Medicaid enrollees, triggering a high risk of coverage loss. Researchers from Manatt Health recommend that states act now to prevent unintended coverage loss by partnering with stakeholders to make policy and system changes, working with federal officials to improve the redetermination process, and broadening outreach efforts.

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READ MORE
Reducing Vaccine Doses per Vial Will Help Primary Care Clinicians
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working with manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines to
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reduce the number of doses per vial and the number of vials per package to avoid wasting unused doses. This was
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one of the recommendations of primary care clinicians who recently spoke to the Commonwealth Fund’s Sarah Klein and Martha Hostetter about the barriers they face in administering vaccines. Rather than upending their schedules and redirecting staff to make use of multidose vials that expire within hours, they could vaccinate any willing patient if they had fewer doses per vial.


Other Recent Publications


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Restoring Access to Maternity Care in Rural America
Nearly half of rural U.S. counties are considered maternity care deserts, where a lack of access to hospital-based obstetric services has contributed to increasing rates of maternal mortality. Rural counties with higher percentages of Black people of reproductive age are more likely to lose these services than other rural counties. The new issue of Transforming Care profiles efforts to expand access to maternity care in rural communities. One of the strategies involves deploying advanced practice nurses and sonographers to manage high-risk pregnancies.

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Texas’s New Abortion Law Will Further Entrench Racist Policies
Texas’s new abortion law, S.B. 8, narrowly restricts women’s access to critical reproductive health care services. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s David Blumenthal, M.D., and Laurie Zephyrin, M.D., argue that the law could also compound the state’s racial health care disparities and perpetuate entrenched systemic racism. Pointing to the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid eligibility, the authors say that policies and laws “have exacerbated racial inequities and entrenched the impacts of systemic racism in our health care system.”

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Congress Has Options for Bringing Down Medicare Drug Prices
Data from two new studies reveal just how much more the U.S. spends on prescription drugs for older adults with complex health needs than other high-income countries spend. The Commonwealth Fund’s Christina Ramsay and Reginald D. Williams II report that high drug prices — not greater use or quantity of medications — are the main driver of this spending. They also point out that policy options currently before Congress could help, by allowing Medicare to leverage its purchasing power to get better prices for beneficiaries and by capping how much they have to pay out of pocket.

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The Gold Standard for Assessing Health Systems’ Financial Strength
Understanding hospital finances is essential to good health policy. Too often, policymakers evaluate the financial performance of health care systems by measuring the costs of care as reported in the Medicare Cost Reports. But those data don’t provide a full picture of fiscal health. The Urban Institute’s Robert Berenson, M.D., and Harvard University’s Nancy Kane argue that detailed financial statements, certified by outside auditors, offer a superior source of information. A national database of audited data, they say, would provide a much better picture of health system finances and could inform a wide range of policy decisions.

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READ MORE
Minority Health Policy Fellowship Application Period Is Open
The Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard University has announced a
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call for applications for the 2022–23 fellowship year. At Harvard Medical School, applications are now being accepted for the one-year, degree-granting, full-time fellowship beginning July 2022. The fellowship is designed to prepare physicians, particularly those from groups underrepresented in medicine, to become leaders in transforming health care delivery systems and promoting innovation in policies, practices, and programs that address health system inequities and social determinants of health. The application deadline is 5:00 pm ET on December 1, 2021. Please visit
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informational webinar on October 20, 2021, from 1:00 pm–2:00 pm ET.


Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership Application Is Now Open
The
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application for the
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Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University is now open. The fellowship is a 22-month, fully funded M.B.A. degree-granting program that gives health care practitioners the leadership skills and deep understanding of teams, markets, and organizations necessary to tackle inequities in the U.S. health care system. It aims to connect with leaders across the U.S. who have a demonstrated commitment to addressing disparities and who are positioned to expand their impact. Get to know the Yale M.B.A. for Executives:
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learn who the students are ,
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read the blog , attend one of the
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upcoming events , or
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request a preassessment to determine your fit. Email questions to
mailto:[email protected]?subject=
[email protected] .
Meet the New Class of Harkness Fellows in Health Care Policy and Practice
The Commonwealth Fund introduces the
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2021–22 Harkness Fellows in Health Care Policy and Practice : Matilda Allen (U.K.), Thomas Barnay (France), Ane-Kristine Finbraten (Norway), Emily Hough (U.K.), Jane Kinsey (New Zealand), Clemence Mainpin (France), Andres Roman-Urrestarazu (U.K.), and Emma Watson (U.K.) The Harkness Fellowships promote cross-national learning among policymakers and leaders in health care delivery, and the fellows’ work directly supports the Commonwealth Fund’s mission of promoting a high-performing health care system. The application for the 2022–23 Harkness Fellowships is open through November 1, 2021. To learn more, visit
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our website or email Molly FitzGerald at
mailto:[email protected]?subject=
[email protected] .





Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.

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