Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

The Top Three...

It has been a horrible week with the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas. Our heart break for the victims, their families, and the community. Only action will prevent these events from continuing--may we have the strength to do something this time.

With so much going on, if you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

HealthcareDive: Healthcare employers must urgently address burnout, surgeon general warns Widespread burnout among the healthcare workforce exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic is a major concern that needs to be urgently addressed, according to a Monday advisory from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.Burnout is contributing to ongoing staffing shortages, and the responsibility of eliminating factors that contribute to burnout falls primarily on healthcare employers, according to the advisory. (Mensik, 5/23)

Politico: Senate Begins Search For Bipartisan Gun Deal After Schumer's Green Light Chuck Schumer is giving long-shot gun safety negotiations a chance. Kyrsten Sinema is reaching out to Republicans on a path forward. And GOP senators are answering Chris Murphy’s call for new bipartisan talks. Betting on a 50-50 Senate to cut a deal responding to the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school just five months before the midterms is still a long shot. But there’s enough will among Senate Democrats to at least give it a go, rather than force sure-to-fail votes intended to put Republicans on defense. (Everett, 5/25)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Finance Leaders Propose Bill To Expand Telehealth For Mental Healthcare A bipartisan group of Senate Finance Committee leaders on Thursday proposed expanding telehealth access for mental health services. The committee issued a discussion draft that pushes to eliminate Medicare's in-person visit requirement prior to patients seeking online mental health services. This requirement has not gone into effect due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. But when the emergency ends, it would limit older adults' ability to access virtual care. Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) released the draft urging stronger legislative action.Telehealth services proved to be a "game-changer" during the pandemic, Wyden said in a news release. (Berryman, 5/26)

For a Deeper Dive...

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Centers Face Trouble After Public Health Emergency Ends A perfect storm looms for federally qualified health centers whenever the federal government decides the COVID-19 public health emergency is over. When that declaration ends, which isn't likely to happen until at least October, many community health center patients are expected to lose Medicaid coverage, which will leave clinics without reimbursement for services they provide. Planning for the future is further complicated by a pending funding cliff in fiscal 2023 and numerous other policy challenges. "It's very stressful looking for money rather than taking care of people," said Mary Elizabeth Marr, CEO of community health center chain Thrive Alabama. "We are the ones that take care of people that nobody else wants to take care of, and yet we're having to do all kinds of heroic things to try to raise funds." (Goldman and Hartnett, 5/26)

Stat: Hospitals Are Exploring A Way To Pay For Uninsured Covid-19 Care The federal health department shut down a program that paid hospitals and clinics for caring for uninsured Covid-19 patients, but some hospitals are now eyeing a backdoor option to get those costs paid for. Throughout much of the pandemic, the costs of testing, vaccinating, and treating uninsured patients were mostly funneled to a multi-billion-dollar program run by the Health Resources and Services Administration, but that program ran out of money and shut down in April. The program paid out more than $1 billion per month, which means its closure was a big hit for some facilities that serve large numbers of uninsured patients. (Cohrs, 5/26)

CIDRAP: Report: US Plant Closure Portends Drug Shortages—Some Critical In its first analysis, the newly formed End Drug Shortages Alliance (EDSA) warns that the recent shuttering of a troubled Teva Pharmaceuticals manufacturing plant in Irvine, California, could affect the availability of 24 generic sterile injectable drugs, including 5 essential medications for which the company had an over 15% market share. (Van Beusekom, 5/23)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Estimate No Surprises Act Blocked 2M Bills In Two Months The No Surprises Act shielded private health insurance enrollees from an estimated 2 million surprise bills during the first two months of the year, according to a report health insurance industry groups released Tuesday. AHIP and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association surveyed more than 80 commercial health insurance companies, 31 of which responded. Those insurers represent 115 million commercial health plan members. These companies reported receiving 600,000 claims covered by the surprise billing law in January and February. Based on claims experiences from prior years and factoring in processing delays this year, the insurance groups estimate that the true amount of such bills at 2 million. (Berryman, 5/24)

North Carolina Health News: NC Senate Republicans Float Medicaid Expansion Bill It finally happened. In a move that many health care advocates have been pushing for years, the state Senate introduced a bill on Wednesday that would expand the state’s Medicaid program to some half million-plus low-income North Carolinians. Until this point, Medicaid has been reserved mostly for children from low-income families along with a small number of parents in those families, poor seniors and people with disabilities. Since 2012, the possibility to sweep in many low-income workers has been on the table as a result of the Affordable Care Act, but Republican leaders in the state senate have been staunch opponents. (Hoban and Crumpler, 5/26)

For the Visual Among Us