HEALTHCARE SYSTEM REFORM
The Source Roundup: February 2018 Edition
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher February 2, 2018
Happy February! In this edition of the Source Roundup, we cover five academic articles from December and January. The topics this month include: (1) oncologists’ bias against biosimilars, (2) effects of recent mergers and acquisitions on the health system, (3) initial results from Maryland’s global budget mandate, and (4, 5) recent changes to the 340B program. How Oncologists May Be Biased Against Biosimilars In Behavioral Economics and the Future of Biosimilars, a commentary in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, authors Chad Nabhan and Bruce Feinberg …
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How the Expansion of Association Health Plans Undermines the Safeguards of the ACA
Source Fellow January 29, 2018
By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow On October 12, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order entitled “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States.” This order states that the Administration will focus on changing, among others areas, the regulations surrounding association health plans (AHPs). This blog post explores the expansion of association health plans and its consequences. Department of Labor’s Proposed New Rule The executive order specifically called upon the Department of Labor to allow more employers to participate in AHPs. As a result, on January 4, 2018, …
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How the 2017 Tax Reform Act May Impact Healthcare Costs and Spending
Source Fellow January 11, 2018
By: Katie Beyer, Student Fellow The 2017 Tax Reform Act, formerly known as H.R.1 the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017. This politically charged bill first passed the Senate by a strict party line vote of 51-48 and passed the House by a final vote of 224-201. No Democrats voted for the bill in either the Senate or the House. Republicans were eager to pass the bill, claiming that families would see an average of $2,200 cut from their annual taxes.[1] …
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The Source Roundup – January 2018 Edition
Source Fellow January 2, 2018
By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow Happy New Year! In this Roundup, we cover four articles from November and December 2017. The topics include 1) the rising cost of emergency care, 2) promoting price transparency through contract law, 3) the move towards value-based payment systems, and 4) government regulation to control prescription drug prices. Rising Cost of Emergency Care As a part of a year-long investigation, Vox, working alongside the Health Care Cost Institute (“HCCI”), investigated the recent phenomenon of increased emergency room prices. In “Emergency Rooms Are Monopolies. Patients …
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Do Bundled Payments Have a Future in Medicare?
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher December 7, 2017
In an op-ed written for the Wall Street Journal on September 19, 2017, Seema Verma, the new administrator for the Centers for Medicare &|Medicaid Services (CMS), announced a “new direction” initiative for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).[1] The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created the CMMI to design and evaluate new payment models designed to either lower spending without reducing the quality of care, or improve the quality of care without increasing spending.[2] The CMMI established payment initiatives that used Medicare to test and implement payment reforms that …
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Academic Articles & Reports Roundup: November 2017
Source Fellow December 2, 2017
By: Katie Beyer, Student Fellow Happy December! In this Roundup, we cover four articles from November. The topics this month include: (1) new methods to measure healthcare costs and (2) economic impacts of ACA repeal efforts. Better Understanding Healthcare Costs Through the Use of New Methodologies Two articles in November propose two new methods of measuring healthcare spending rates. In Measuring the Burden of Health Care Costs on US Families: The Affordability Index (Journal of American Medical Association), authors Ezekiel Emanuel, Aaron Glickman, and David Johnson offer a new index measure …
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The End of CSRs: Trump Eliminates “Bailouts” While Others Seek a Solution
Source Fellow October 30, 2017
By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow Trump Administration Has Eliminated CSR Payments On October 11, 2017, in a memo to the Department of Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Attorney General Jeff Sessions provided his legal opinion that Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments were unlawful. CSR payments reimburse insurance companies for losses in deductibles, copays, and coinsurance payments owed by lower income individuals in health plans on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. The following day, Eric Hagan, the acting Secretary of HHS, announced that CSR payments …
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Source Shorts: Medicare Officially Kills Program to Pilot Pharmaceutical Payment Reform
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher October 4, 2017
The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare officially dropped any attempt to implement a pilot program that would change the way drugs were reimbursed under Medicare Part B. This pilot reform attempt has been on hold for more than a year, but CMS has now officially withdrawn it. How does Medicare Part B cover prescriptions? Medicare Part B only covers drugs that are administered in a doctor’s office or clinic, which are primarily intravenous and injectable drugs (the bulk of pharmaceuticals are covered under Medicare Part D and would not …
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Bailout or Bust? How CSR Payments Are in a Precarious State
Source Fellow September 29, 2017
By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow What’s Happened Earlier this year, President Trump began discussing the idea of eliminating cost sharing reduction (“CSR”) payments to insurance companies. (1) CSR payments are reimbursements the federal government provides to insurance companies that provide discounts to enrollees with incomes between 100 and 250% of the poverty line. (2) In a recent tweet, the President referred to CSR payments as “bailouts” to insurance companies and threatened to end these payments “very soon!” So what does this all mean? If President Trump eliminates CSR payments, insurance …
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Academic Articles & Reports Roundup: July 2017
Source Fellow August 1, 2017
By: Katie Beyer, Student Fellow Happy August! In this Roundup of articles from the past month, we cover four articles from July. The topics this month include 1) causes of recent drug price increases and how to reduce them|2) recent trends in health spending by state from 1991-2014|3) analysis of SHOP programs in California and Colorado|and 4) justifying universal health insurance. Causes of Recent Drug Price Increases and How to Reduce them The article Getting to the Root of High Prescription Drug Prices summarizes the major causes of rising prescription drug …
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