Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

Please note that there will not be a Gregg’s Top Three next week. Happy holidays to all and here is to a healthier more peaceful 2024!

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...

Modern Healthcare: Doctors, Hospitals Face Cuts As Congress Takes Christmas Off When Congress went on its winter break before Christmas, it left much of its healthcare business—along with most of it other responsibilities for 2023—unfinished, and now faces an intense scramble to get it all done in just weeks. At the top of the healthcare list is funding programs that depend on annual appropriations for the Health and Human Services Department, which like the rest of the government is running on the latest stopgap funding bill enacted since fiscal 2023 ended Sept. 30. In addition, numerous health-related programs and initiatives expired and are also operating on a short-term lifeline. (McAuliff, 12/21)

Reuters: Enrollment For 2024 Obamacare Plans 33% Higher Than Last Year Consumers who enroll before the deadline will have coverage that starts from Feb. 1, 2024. Those who want to be covered as of Jan. 1 would have had to choose a plan by Dec. 15. Data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month showed nearly 7.3 million Americans had signed up for health insurance so far for next year through the ACA marketplace. (12/20)

Axios: Medicare Is About To Add Hundreds Of Thousands More Mental Health Providers The largest expansion of Medicare's mental health services in a generation can provide a critical lifeline to America's seniors — if enough providers sign up. Starting Jan. 1, some 400,000 marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors for the first time can accept Medicare payment, following years of advocacy and amid a mental health crisis that has weighed heavily on seniors. (Goldman, 12/20)

For a Deeper Dive...

Axios: Americans Less Satisfied With Almost Every Part Of The Health System Americans' satisfaction with almost every major part of the health care system has dropped since 2010, according to a new Gallup analysis. Drugmakers took the biggest reputational hit, and ratings for physicians fell sharply, too. (Goldman, 12/19)

Politico: Biden Administration Pleads With States After Millions Of Kids Lose Medicaid Coverage In letters sent Monday to the governors of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra urged the states to take up more of options CMS has offered to ensure coverage. The options include allowing states to use enrollee information they have to auto-renew coverage. HHS also issued new guidance for states Monday, including an option to give kids an additional 12 months to get on the rolls. That option is available through 2024, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure told reporters. (Cirruzzo, 12/18)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Medicaid Maternal Health Grants Announced The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is offering states money to test Medicaid initiatives designed to tackle the maternal health crisis, the agency announced Friday. CMS will provide up to $17 million over 10 years to as many as 15 states to establish what CMS describes as a holistic approach to childbirth and postpartum care that addresses patients' physical, mental and social needs. Medicaid covers about 40% of childbirths. (Hartnett, 12/15)

Roll Call: Democrats Eye Appropriations To Protect Pediatrician Training House Republicans attempting to tie the reauthorization of a critical pediatrician training program to efforts to limit gender-affirming care for transgender children acknowledge those efforts will collapse. Now lawmakers are looking to fund the program as-is through the appropriations process. Federal authorization for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Program, which trains more than half of pediatric specialists and almost half of general pediatricians nationwide, lapsed on Sept. 30. (Cohen, 12/21)

NPR: Shortage In Primary Care Clinicians Eroding Patient Trust First, her favorite doctor in Providence, R.I. retired. Then her other doctor, at a health center a few miles away, left the practice. Now, Piedad Fred has developed a new chronic condition: distrust in the American medical system. "I don't know,'' she said, eyes filling up. "To go to a doctor that doesn't know who you are? That doesn't know what allergies you have, the medicines that make you feel bad? It's difficult...I know that I feel cheated, sad, and like I have my hands tied.'' (Arditi, 12/22)

Modern Healthcare: Fitch: Healthcare Hiring, Retention Rates Growing Hospital employment numbers have increased, while healthcare job openings are on the decline—though the industry is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 17.2 million individuals were on the payroll at healthcare organizations in November 2023, compared with 16.6 million in December 2022, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Devereaux, 12/20)

CNN: Pharmacists Say They Can’t Do Their Jobs Safely. Here’s What That Means Legally It’s every pharmacist’s worst fear: To come home from a busy day at work and realize that they failed to consult with a patient about a potentially dangerous interaction, or filled a prescription incorrectly. Workers at chain pharmacies across the US have told CNN that increased demand for prescriptions, shots and other services without sufficient staff to fulfill those orders has made it nearly impossible for the workers to do their jobs properly and has created potentially unsafe conditions for customers. (Goodkind, 12/17)

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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