Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

Health policy impacts everyone, but it can be hard to know what is important. If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

The New York Times: Biden Signs Spending Bill, Staving Off A Government Shutdown President Biden signed a short-term government funding bill on Thursday, narrowly averting a government shutdown but leaving a larger spending clash for Congress early next year. The Senate gave final approval to the package late Wednesday, about 48 hours before a shutdown deadline at midnight Friday. In a two-step plan, the bill funds congressional priorities including military construction, veterans affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department through Jan. 19. Other agencies would be funded until Feb. 2. (Friedman, 11/17)

Healthcare Dive:  Medicaid disenrollments pass 10M as states continue eligibility checks More than 10 million low-income Americans have lost Medicaid coverage as states continue checking eligibility for the safety-net program following the pandemic. To date, 35% of the 28 million people with a completed renewal were disenrolled, 71% of all people disenrolled lost coverage for procedural reasons like not filling out paperwork by the deadline, or the state being unable to contact them. The Biden administration has taken a number of steps in an effort to curb procedural disenrollments, including offering states more flexibility in how they pursue redeterminations. To date, all states have taken the CMS up on the additional assistance, except Florida.  (Pifer, 11/6)

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Center Funding Delay Sparks Anxiety Few people enjoy witnessing a dysfunctional Congress run up against one deadline after another just to avoid shutting down the government, but if you lead a community health center, you have little choice but to watch and hope. Congress narrowly avoided a shutdown in September but at that time only extended funding until this Friday. At the same time, lawmakers failed to reauthorize multi-year funding for federally qualified health centers, granting them the same brief reprieve. (McAuliff, 11/16)

For a Deeper Dive...

Stat: PBM Reforms Clear House Panel
Panels in both the House and Senate have now passed restrictions to drug middlemen business practices, increasing the chances of those measures being included in future government spending bills. (Wilkerson, 11/15)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth Sued Over AI, Medicare Advantage Denials
UnitedHealth Group faces a potential class-action lawsuit over its use of an artificial intelligence tool to allegedly deny post-acute care coverage to Medicare Advantage members. The plaintiffs, family members of two deceased UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage policyholders, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota and aim to represent a national class of similarly affected enrollees. The lawsuit alleges that the health insurance company breached its contracts with members, which resulted in unjust enrichment under federal law. (Tepper, 11/14)

The New York Times: An ‘Unsettling’ Drop In Life Expectancy For Men The gap in life expectancy between men and women in the United States grew to its widest in nearly 30 years, driven mainly by more men dying of Covid and drug overdoses, according to a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2021, women had a life expectancy of 79.3 years, compared with 73.5 years for men, the study found. (Ghorayshi, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Nursing Home Ownership Disclosure Final Rule Issued
Nursing homes will be required to disclose their owners and other affiliated businesses to federal authorities under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published Wednesday. The regulation seeks to shed light on an often opaque industry. Many skilled nursing facilities have complex corporate structures that make it difficult for government agencies to hold owners, operators and other parties accountable for violations of laws governing such matters as safety and quality. (Bennett, 11/15)

USA Today: On Preterm Labor, U.S. Gets Failing Grade (Again) In New Report
The U.S. has landed another poor grade when it comes to preterm births, with festering disparities in outcomes for Black and Native women that are life-threatening, according to a new annual report. Preterm birth, when babies are born before 37 weeks gestation, is among the leading causes of infant death in the U.S., according to the March of Dimes. Outcomes across the country improved only slightly this year. ...The March of Dimes gave the U.S. a D+ grade in its “State of Maternal and Infant Health for American Families” report card published Thursday. (Cuevas, 11/16)

Stat: Americans' Trust In Science, Scientist Continues Decline: Report
America’s trust in scientists and positive views of science has continued to decline, according to a new report. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, asked a random sample of 8,842 American adults this fall about their views on science and scientists. They found that roughly a quarter of Americans — 27% — said they have not too much or no confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests, compared to 12% who said the same in April 2020. (Nayak, 11/14)

The Washington Post: Federal Program Didn’t Make A Dent In Physician Shortages Overall
A decades-old federal program that offers doctors incentives to practice in disadvantaged communities has had little effect on physician density or patient mortality, a recent analysis concludes. Publishing in the journal Health Affairs, researchers looked at data from the Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) program, zeroing in on physician density and mortality. Introduced in 1965, the HPSA program designates areas in need of more physicians and offers bonuses, loan repayment, visa waivers, higher reimbursements and other benefits to doctors who choose to practice and serve Medicare patients in specific communities. (Blakemore, 11/12)

For the Visual Among Us...

A few years ago I started a weekly e-mail for friends and colleagues who want to keep up on major federal health policy developments but did not have time to plod through all the minutiae--they were busy doing important things like running organizations and taking care of patients! Much to my surprise, it became pretty popular. I have now converted to a weekly newsletter format so you can manage your own subscription preferences and forward to others that might be interested.

These summaries represent my judgement on health policy issues that may not on the front pages, but are relevant to clinicians, administrators, and educators. I monitor many news sources and clipping services to identify content for this newsletter and I try hard to be as factual, balanced, and non-partisan as possible. While the articles are written by others (with credit attributed), the choice of what to include is entirely mine. If you are interested in receiving a daily summary of health policy news, you might consider signing up for the KHN Morning Briefing. If you enjoy podcasts, I suggest What the Health? and Tradeoffs.

-Gregg S. Margolis, PhD