Gregg's Top Three (+1) Health Policy Articles

The Top Three...

A special bonus this week!  The NYT did a great article on Medicare Advantage plans which I have included as a +1.  With so much going on, it can be hard to know what to read.  If you can only read three four things about health policy this week, I suggest...

Reuters: Biden To Sign Order Seeking New Prescription Drug Cost Savings - Official President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Friday pushing federal officials to drive prescription drug costs down during a pre-election trip designed to promote Democrats' health policies, an official said. The order requires the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to outline within 90 days how it will use new models of care and payment to cut drug costs, according to the White House official, who declined to be identified previewing the president's action. (Hunnicutt, 10/14)

Fierce Healthcare: Biden Administration Finalizes Rule To Get Rid Of ACA's 'Family Glitch' The rule doesn’t change significantly from the proposal issued in April. The regulation focuses on a provision of the ACA that entitles low-income Americans to get premium assistance on the marketplace if their employer-sponsored insurance doesn’t reach a certain threshold. An employee would qualify for such assistance if they must spend more than 9.5% of their household income on premiums. However, a glitch in the regulation meant that the threshold only affects the individual’s health plan and not the premium for dependents. While the individual and family can meet the 9.5% threshold, they would only get premium assistance for just the individual’s healthcare costs. (King, 10/11)

The Washington Post: Social Security Benefits To Rise By 8.7 Percent In 2023 The Social Security Administration announced on Thursday an 8.7 percent increase in benefit checks for seniors starting next year, a response to the fastest inflation America has seen in four decades. The change will affect about 70.3 million Social Security beneficiaries, including roughly 8 million Supplemental Security Income recipients. The adjustment is expected to increase monthly Social Security checks by about $150 per month on average. (Stein, 10/13)

+1:  Read this to understand Medicare Advantage

This week I came across a great article that really explains Medicare Advantage plans...

NYT:  ‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions  Medicare Advantage, a private-sector alternative to traditional Medicare, was designed by Congress two decades ago to encourage health insurers to find innovative ways to provide better care at lower cost. If trends hold, by next year, more than half of Medicare recipients will be in a private plan.  But a New York Times review of dozens of fraud lawsuits, inspector general audits and investigations by watchdogs shows how major health insurers exploited the program to inflate their profits by billions of dollars. (10/8, Abelson and Sanger-Katz)

For a Deeper Dive...

Stateline: Many Patients Can't Afford Health Costs Even With Insurance The number of Americans with health insurance has climbed to historic highs during the COVID-19 pandemic, but within that silver lining is a darker hue. Many Americans have policies that only provide limited financial protection, to the point that many patients report forgoing needed medical care or prescriptions to avoid being hit with punishing out-of-pocket costs. (Ollove, 10/7)

Becker's Hospital Review: 89% Of Medical Practices See Significant Increase In Regulatory Burden, Survey Says Medical practices in the U.S. continue to face overwhelming regulatory challenges, according to a report published Oct. 11 by the Medical Group Management Association. The 2022 Annual Regulatory Burden Report survey included responses from more than 500 medical group practices. Findings indicate that 89 percent of respondents reported that the overall regulatory burden on their medical practice has increased over the past 12 months. (Tucker, 10/12)

Stat: Documents Detail How Walgreens, CVS, Walmart Failed Patients On Opioids In 2011, Walgreens executives were under pressure. Amid a growing addiction crisis, and with the country already awash in prescription painkillers, the federal government was demanding accountability from the pharmacy giant for filling thousands of opioid prescriptions written by doctors in suspiciously large quantities. (Facher, Sheridan and Silverman, 10/14)

The New York Times: How Social Media Amplifies Misinformation More Than Information It is well known that social media amplifies misinformation and other harmful content. The Integrity Institute, an advocacy group, is now trying to measure exactly how much — and on Thursday it began publishing results that it plans to update each week through the midterm elections on Nov. 8. The institute’s initial report, posted online, found that a “well-crafted lie” will get more engagements than typical, truthful content and that some features of social media sites and their algorithms contribute to the spread of misinformation. (Myers, 10/13)

Stat: A Tiny New HHS Office Has A Mammoth Goal: Tackling Environmental Justice Ask 10 people how a federal health care agency might tackle “environmental justice,” and you’ll get 10 answers. The only real uniting thread is that the issues are massive, amorphous, and potentially intractable. Which makes it all the more daunting for the two lone staffers currently detailed to the Office of Environmental Justice, one of whom is set to depart soon. (Owermohle, 10/11)

The Washington Post: Spread Of Catholic Hospitals Restricts Abortion, Birth Control Access The Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion is revealing the growing influence of Catholic health systems and their restrictions on reproductive services including birth control and abortion — even in the diminishing number of states where the procedure remains legal. Catholic systems now control about 1 in 7 U.S. hospital beds, requiring religious doctrine to guide treatment, often to the surprise of patients. Their ascendancy has broad implications for the evolving national battle over reproductive rights beyond abortion, as bans against it take hold in more than a dozen Republican-led states. (Sellers and Venkataramanan, 10/10)

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