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The Commonwealth Fund Connection

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




December 13, 2021

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The Fate of Federal Vaccine Mandates in the Courts
Federal courts have temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates as a result of challenges brought by Republican state attorneys general. On To the Point, health law expert Timothy S. Jost questions whether those rulings are rooted in legal or political considerations. Most concerning, he says, is the fate of the federal vaccine mandate for providers that participate in Medicare and Medicaid.

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New Podcast: The Quest for Equity in Reproductive Health
The U.S. maternal health crisis has been well documented, with Black Americans three times as likely as white Americans to die from pregnancy-related causes. Why do these disparities persist, and how do we dismantle structural racism in reproductive health care? On the latest episode of The Dose, the University of Minnesota's Rachel Hardeman discusses her research exploring ways to center equity in reproductive health care. She says it’s a huge priority “to make sure that birthing people, regardless of the setting they're birthing in, have access to culturally centered maternity care.”

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New Health Equity Scorecard
A new health equity scorecard from the Commonwealth Fund finds that health care systems in every state are failing people of color. The report’s 24 measures evaluate states on measures of health care access, quality and service use, and health outcomes among Black, white, Latinx/Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations. Even in high-performing states, racial and ethnic health disparities can be dramatic. And in states where health systems perform poorly for both white and Black people, white residents still fare better.

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Increasing Racial Diversity at Academic Medical Centers: What Will It Take?
Medical schools have made little progress in
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increasing their racial diversity, according to a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, primarily because academic medical centers have ignored the structural inequities that hinder recruitment and advancement of racially diverse students. For a
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recent reporting project, the Commonwealth Fund’s Sarah Klein and Martha Hostetter spoke to leaders at eight academic medical centers about their efforts to build more diverse student bodies and leadership.

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Real Cost of Maternal Morbidity in the United States
New research from Mathematica and the Commonwealth Fund indicates that the societal costs of maternal morbidity — unexpected complications of pregnancy and childbirth that have serious health impacts — run into tens of billions of dollars. The biggest costs are related to lost productivity, cesarean section delivery, and increased hospital stays shortly before or following childbirth.

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How to Advance Equity in Maternal Health
Maternal health in the United States is in crisis. Not only are rates of death and severe complication on the rise, but wide racial and geographic disparities in maternal health outcomes are increasingly evident. A new report from researchers at the University of Washington and the Commonwealth Fund highlights a number of potential policy solutions, from increasing use of telehealth in rural areas to ensuring continuous health coverage from pregnancy through one year postpartum.

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Making Pregnancy and Childbirth Safer
In STAT, the Commonwealth Fund and Mathematica experts argue it’s time for the U.S. to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for all mothers. Although timely care can prevent most pregnancy-related complications, too many Americans, especially people of color and the publicly insured, can’t readily access it. “Making a substantial change will require intentional investments,” they say, as well as “addressing racism and other factors that influence health.”

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Protecting Consumers from Surprise Ambulance Bills
The recently enacted No Surprises Act will protect consumers from surprise medical bills for most emergency services — but not ground ambulance rides. On To the Point, Georgetown University researchers examine the complex challenges surrounding ambulance billing and offer insights from regulators in Maine and Colorado, which have prohibited surprise billing by out-of-network ground ambulance providers.

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It’s the Price of Brand-Name Drugs, Stupid
The United States spends more on prescription drugs than 32 high-income countries combined — despite accounting for less than 25 percent of drug sales. In seven charts, we illustrate the main reason for the discrepancy: the U.S. pays much higher prices for brand-name drugs.

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What Will It Take to Advance Consumer Choice in U.S. Health Care?
What’s preventing people from making informed choices about their health care? In a new report, Harvard University’s Anna D. Sinaiko, Elizabeth Bambury, and Alyna T. Chien suggest approaches providers could take to help patients make high-value health care options.

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Supreme Court to Decide on DSH Payments to Hospitals
Last month, the Supreme Court heard a challenge to a 2004 federal rule that reinterpreted how Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments are calculated. On To the Point, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Allison Hoffman explains how the case, Becerra v. Empire Health Foundation, will affect not only hospitals serving a large number of low-income patients but also the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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