Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

KFF Health News: Harris-Walz Ticket Sharpens Contrast With Trump-Vance On Health Care Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate is making health care a front-burner issue in the final sprint to the November presidential election. Walz, a 60-year-old former high school teacher and football coach, has a record of supporting left-leaning health care initiatives during his two terms as governor and while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. (Armour, 8/19)

AP: Agreement To Cancel Medical Debt For 193,000 Needy Patients In Southern States A New Orleans-based system of hospitals and clinics serving Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is working with a New York nonprofit to wipe out $366 million in medical debt for about 193,000 needy patients. The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported Wednesday that the deal involving Ochsner Health was arranged by Undue Medical Debt, a donor-funded organization that negotiates with hospitals, doctors’ offices and ambulance services to purchase and erase the outstanding medical debt of those least able to afford it. (8/22)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Hit With EMTALA Complaints Over Emergency Abortions Hospitals left waiting for the Supreme Court to untangle contradictory federal and state laws on abortion and emergency medicine are coming under fire. Experts warned that providers in the 26 states with near-total abortion bans could become targets for scrutiny and financial repercussions after the Supreme Court declined to rule on a key abortion case in June. In the meantime, providers in those states face a fraught choice between risking state prison sentences for their employees or federal monetary repercussions. (Early, 8/21)

For a Deeper Dive...

Stat: At DNC, Health Care Platform Favors Smaller Goals Over Grand Reform Gone are the days when Democrats bickered over wholesale reform of the American health care system — including Vice President Harris herself during the 2020 campaign cycle. Instead, their plan this election cycle evokes President Biden’s slogan to “finish the job” — even though they’re running a new candidate. With the notable exception of calling to erase medical debt by working with states, Democrats are largely eyeing marginal extensions or reinstatements of their prior policy achievements. (Zhang, 8/19)

Stat: 5 Health Issues To Watch For At The Democratic National Convention Democrats have set the stage for a convention this week packed with boasts about some of their most popular health care policy wins and future moonshot goals. The four-day event in Chicago will kick off as former President Trump increases attacks on rising inflation, economic hardship, and border control policies under the Biden administration. The Republican candidate has not dwelled much on health care in his campaign rhetoric. But Democrats see topics from reproductive rights to lower drug prices as winning issues with voters. (Owermohle, 8/18)

Healthcare Dive:  New Jersey to erase $100M of medical debt Nearly 50,000 patients in New Jersey will see $100 million worth of medical debt forgiven under a plan announced Tuesday by Gov. Phil Murphy. The state is partnering with nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to buy and erase debt from nearly 18,000 New Jersey residents who owed nearly $62 million to Prime Healthcare hospitals. Another 32,000 New Jerseyans will have more than $38 million worth of debt forgiven that’s owed to other providers through the secondary debt market, largely collections agencies, according to a press release. Patients who qualify are either four times or below the federal poverty level or with medical debts that equal 5% or more of their annual income. (Olsen 8/22)

NBC News: Judge Rules HIV-Positive Americans Cannot Be Banned From Joining Military Americans with well-treated HIV can no longer be barred from enlisting in the U.S. military, a federal judge ruled Thursday, striking down the Pentagon’s last remaining policy limiting the service of those with the virus. “Defendants’ policies prohibiting the accession of asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals with undetectable viral loads into the military are irrational, arbitrary, and capricious.” ... wrote Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. (Sopelsa and Ryan, 8/21)

Modern Healthcare: What Democrats Could Do On Healthcare If Kamala Harris Wins The Democratic National Convention kicked off Monday in an atmosphere of renewed optimism for the party and a new candidate atop its ticket. One thing that won’t be entirely new is the trajectory of health policy should Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz win the White House on Election Day. The top-line item, healthcare analysts and policy experts predict, will still be reproductive healthcare and abortion ... which promises to be a recurring topic at the DNC in Chicago, which runs through Thursday. (McAuliff, 8/19)

NBC News: RFK Jr. As Trump’s Health Secretary? Here’s What He Wants To Do For weeks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign has floated his interest in a Cabinet position in a future Trump White House while publicly denying he would accept it. On Tuesday, Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, told an interviewer the campaign was weighing whether to “join forces” with Trump and suggested that Kennedy would do an “incredible job” as secretary of health and human services. Trump later told CNN that he “probably would” appoint Kennedy to some role. (Zadrozny, 8/22)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Investing In Affordable Housing See Fewer ED Visits Health systems investing in affordable community housing have seen significant decreases in inpatient and emergency department visits among patients experiencing homelessness. Hospitals are creating housing programs and partnering with local building developers, health departments and governments to connect patients to stable housing options. (Devereaux, 8/21)

Modern Healthcare: Epic's Judy Faulkner Debuts New Prior Authorization, AI Features Epic is planning to deepen its relationships with health insurance companies, the electronic health record giant said at its annual user group meeting Tuesday. The EHR company is working with health systems and large insurers such as CVS Health subsidiary Aetna, Elevance Health and multiple Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans to streamline prior authorization requests and ease provider appeals to payers, Epic founder and CEO Judy Faulkner said during a keynote address. (Turner, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: How Biden's Nursing Home Reforms Impacted Transparency, Oversight Two years ago, President Joe Biden set out to tackle chronic safety and quality problems in the nursing home sector. Whether he succeeded won't be known until after he exits the White House. The nursing home campaign launched at the State of the Union address in 2022, in the aftermath of devastation that COVID-19 wrought on nursing homes. ... Considering these and other efforts, Biden oversaw the most consequential period in nursing home regulation since President Ronald Reagan enacted the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, said David Grabowski, a health policy professor at Harvard Medical School. (Early, 8/20)

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