Health Affairs

Are you thinking about how the health system will handle the costs of blockbuster obesity drugs? Join Insider and attend our next Journal Club event with author Benedic Ippolito: "Coverage of Anti-Obesity Medicines Could Increase Medicare Spending By Billions" Tuesday August 27, 2024 3 pm - 4 pm ET Insiders, register today: https://bit.ly/4cCoOGH

Most State Medicaid Programs Cover Routine Eye Exams For Adults, But Coverage Of Other Routine Vision Services Varies By Brandy J. Lipton, Jenna Garcia, Michel H. Boudreaux, Petros Azatyan, and Melissa Powell McInerney Read the full article: https://bit.ly/3YHi1YK

In their new Forefront article, Jeanne Ayers, Gnora Mahs & Anthony Iton of Healthy Democracy Healthy People and The California Endowment call on their colleagues to explore how they, and the institutions they work in, can strengthen voting and support the health of our democracy. "Ironically, workers in the health sector, such as physicians, nurses, physician assistants and dentists, are 12-23 percent less likely to vote than the general population. This is concerning because the sector accounts for 22 million workers, or about 14 percent of all workers in the United States. Thus, leaders in health need to also think about how to encourage and motivate their colleagues to register to vote, and then to actually vote. Our own efforts (JA and GRGM) include the recently launched Thrive through Civic Health: We Will Vote initiative. A collaboration between Healthy Democracy Healthy People, Vot-ER, and Civic Health Alliance, the initiative seeks to get more of the health workforce to vote and also to be champions of voting, whether with colleagues or patients." Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/3yKY8We

"COVID-19 Federal Funding To Health Centers: Tracking Distribution, Locations, And Patient Characteristics" In 2020 and 2021, health centers received federal funding to support their COVID-19 pandemic response, yet little is known about how the funds were distributed. This study identified ten sources of funding distributed to 1,352 centers, ranging from $19 to $1.22 billion per center. Read the full article by Megan B. Cole, Brad Wright, Paula M. Kett, Hannah Johnson, Jonathan Staloff, and Bianca K. Frogner: https://bit.ly/4cyXYyY

In their new Forefront article, Amalia Londoño Tobón, Obianuju O. Berry, Sasha Gorelik, Hye Sung Ryou, Nancy Byatt, Karla Cardoza, Camille A. Clare, Ariadna Forray, Thomas I. Mackie, Alejandra Hurtado de Mendoza, Darius Tandon, and Wanjikū F.M. Njoroge from Georgetown University, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, School of Public Health (SPH), UMass Memorial Health, Northwestern University, Yale University, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia provide context for the findings of the Health Affairs study by Sarah Haight and colleagues describing racial-ethnic disparities in perinatal mental health by focusing on drivers of these inequities and offering recommendations to address them. "Many of these perinatal mental health care inequities are associated with adverse social drivers of health, also referred to as social and structural determinants of health (SDOH). These include economic, food, diaper, and housing insecurity; limited transportation; lack of access to child care; lack of access to health care and insurance; and racism. However, as the World Health Organization notes in their definition, adverse SDOH must be understood within the context of the policies that shape them—the political drivers/determinants of health (PDOH). PDOH systematically structure relationships, distribute resources, and allocate power in ways that either advance health equity or exacerbate health inequities. The connection between SDOH and their political roots is often overlooked, but the ongoing perinatal mental health crisis clearly demonstrates how PDOH drive perinatal health and mental inequities in the US." Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/46WfGeI

JUST RELEASED: The first report in our new Eye On The IRA article series, "Is It Working? Evaluating The First Round Of Medicare Drug Price Negotiations" Read the report by Laura Tollen, released ahead of the September 2024 issue: https://bit.ly/3yUdQyk

In their new Forefront article, Sheela Ranganathan and Zachary Baron of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown discuss the recent development that, in the appellate first decision on the merits of a statutory challenge to the implementation of the NSA, a Fifth Circuit panel affirmed a lower court ruling vacating regulatory provisions related to the NSA’s arbitration process. "The Fifth Circuit panel's majority opinion, written by Judge Edith Jones, stated that TMA had standing to bring the case for four reasons. First, the panel agreed with the district court that the Texas Medical Association (TMA) was injured because its members are being “deprived of the arbitration process” established by the statute. The panel explained that “procedural injury” doctrine is not limited to cases where an agency fails to follow the proper procedures in promulgating a rule; they found that the doctrine applies in this case because the administration’s regulations—in particular an August 2022 final rule (the Final Rule)—compelled TMA to participate in 'an invalid administrative process.'" Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/3Xe53kc

Meeting The Needs Of Socially Vulnerable Patients: Views Of ACO Leaders On Moving From Intent To Action By Dhruv Khullar, William L. Schpero, Lawrence P. Casalino, Reekarl Pierre, Samuel Carter, Yasin Civelek, Manyao Zhang, and Amelia M. Bond Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4dTxbyL

In his new Forefront article, Brandon Zelasko from SE2 argues that, while the FDA’s decision to allow gay men to donate blood is a significant victory for equity and inclusion, it is only the beginning. "To transform this opportunity into meaningful participation, we need to focus on three key strategies: rebuilding trust among potential donors; educating them—as well as public health leaders and clinicians—about the new policy; and demonstrating the impactful contributions of LGBTQ+ blood donors—particularly cisgender gay men (those most widely excluded over the years)." Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/47bR2qR

The Risk Of Perpetuating Health Disparities Through Cost-Effectiveness Analyses By Sanjay Basu, Atheendar S. Venkataramani, and Dean Schillinger Cost-effectiveness analyses are commonly used to inform health care and public health policy decisions. However, standard approaches may systematically disadvantage marginalized groups by incorporating assumptions of persisting health inequities. Read the full article in the August 2024 issue: https://bit.ly/4fTRgqs You can also listen to author Sanjay Basu on the August 13 episode of A Health Podyssey - available wherever you get your podcasts.