Joseph Betancourt to Be Next Commonwealth Fund President
Joseph R. Betancourt, M.D., will be the next president of the Commonwealth Fund and the eighth in the foundation’s 104-year history. He will join the Fund on January 17, replacing David Blumenthal, M.D., who has served for the past 10 years. A preeminent leader in health care, equity, quality, and community health, Betancourt is the former senior vice president for Equity and Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. He will become one of the first Latino heads of a national health care foundation.
“His breadth of experience as a physician, health system leader, and pioneer in disparities research gives him keen insight and a diverse toolkit for addressing the challenges U.S. health care will face in the coming years,” said Michael Drake, M.D., president of the University of California and chair of the Commonwealth Fund Board of Directors. “His will be a critically important new perspective and voice in health care philanthropy.”
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COVID Vaccines Prevented Millions of Deaths in Past Two Years
Vaccinations prevented 18.5 million additional hospitalizations and 3.2 million additional deaths since the first shot was given two years ago, according to computer modeling by Commonwealth Fund–supported researchers from the University of Maryland, York University, and the Yale School of Public Health. The model also estimates that the vaccination campaign has saved more than $1 trillion in medical costs between December 2020 and November 2022.
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Maternal and Infant Deaths Higher in States That Restrict Abortion
With the Supreme Court’s ruling that Americans do not have a constitutional right to abortion, many states have banned or severely restricted the procedure, and others plan to follow suit. According to a new Commonwealth Fund study, rates of maternal and infant death in these states are dramatically higher than in states that are preserving abortion access. In fact, deaths for women of reproductive age are overall much higher in abortion-restriction states, where women have less access to affordable insurance coverage and maternal care.
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Other Countries Have Few Maternal Deaths. Why Can’t the U.S.?
The number of U.S. women who die from complications related to pregnancy is high and continues to grow. And the rate for Black women is nearly three times what it is for white women. Compare this to other high-income countries like the Netherlands, where in 2020 there were nearly no deaths from maternal complications. On To the Point, Commonwealth Fund experts look at how maternal health in other countries compares to the U.S. and how we might catch up.
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Medicaid Postpartum Coverage Can Ease Maternal Health Crisis
Consistent and equitable access to health care following childbirth can prevent maternal deaths and address health complications. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Sara Federman and Akeiisa Coleman discuss the American Rescue Plan Act’s option for states to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from the 60-day federal minimum to a full 12 months, a change that could benefit up to 720,000 Americans per year.
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Latest Uncared For Podcast Episodes
Uncared For,
the six-part Commonwealth Fund–supported podcast from Lemonada Media, asks what it takes to build a maternal health system that centers dignity, autonomy, and love in the delivery of care. In Episode 4, award-winning journalist and host SuChin Pak explores how the Netherlands earns its reputation for providing the gold standard for maternal care. In Episode 5, we learn why rural regions of the U.S. that currently struggle to provide maternal care might want to follow the example of Costa Rica, which boasts a strong, community-oriented system. The final episode returns to the U.S., where Roots Community Birth Center in Minneapolis is doing something radical — providing community-based maternal care that rejects overmedicalization and integrates midwives into primary care.
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To Improve Reproductive Health Care, Look to Latin America
The fight over the future of reproductive health care in the U.S. has begun in earnest. But other countries are also embroiled in vigorous debate over women’s health care. As the Commonwealth Fund’s Evan Gumas reports in our International Insights newsletter, a mass movement known as the Green Wave has taken Latin America by storm as it seeks to improve women’s access to health and social services, especially reproductive health care.
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Expanding Behavioral Health Access Without Raising Spending
Demand for behavioral health services, from addiction treatment to mental health care, is at an all-time high, yet many people struggle to find the help they need. In a new Transforming Care case study, Martha Hostetter and Sarah Klein explore how Rocky Mountain Health Plans in Colorado has managed to increase its members’ access to these services without increasing overall health spending.
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Collaborative Care Can Improve Young People’s Mental Health
By integrating mental health services into primary and pediatric care, the collaborative care model has been shown to reduce access barriers and stigma while facilitating the early identification and treatment of young people’s mental health conditions. Yet uptake of the approach by Medicaid programs, health systems, and primary care providers has been slow. Learn about the factors impeding wider adoption of the collaborative care model and how policymakers might address them.
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How Nigeria Is Reducing HIV Infections
HIV infections are on the rise in parts of the United States, and UNAIDS’s most recent report found infections rose in one of five countries. With COVID-19 compromising access to HIV testing and care, countries have struggled to reduce in infections. One exception is Nigeria, as the Commonwealth Fund’s Evan Gumas reports in International Insights.
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Effective Health Information Exchange in the U.S.
“Although virtually all patient information is now recorded electronically, the persistent inability to move this information easily from place to place has remained a major frustration for patients, clinicians, and policymakers in the United States,” writes Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., in the New England Journal of Medicine. But a new federal regulation, he says, could change that by requiring synchronization of information technologies and neutralizing financial disincentives for sharing information.
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CMS Adopts Patient-Reported Measure for Hip, Knee Replacements
Under a new rule adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), hospitals will have to survey patients before and after hip- or knee-replacement surgery to assess whether the procedure helped them achieve their pain-reduction goals. Hospitals will then be given an overall rate of improvement, adjusted for patient mix and risks. A Transforming Care feature looks at the
potential of such patient-reported outcome measures to improve quality of care and reduce health disparities.
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CMS Approves Groundbreaking State Medicaid Demonstrations
CMS recently approved Section 1115 demonstration waivers in Arkansas, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon that seek to bolster enrollment and address social drivers of health. Mindy Lipson and Cindy Mann from Manatt Health outline some of the innovative features, including Oregon’s plan to enroll children continuously in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program from birth to age 6, and Massachusetts’ bid to provide 12 months of continuous coverage for people released from correctional facilities and 24 months of coverage for people without housing.
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