Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Research Roundup: Medicaid Expansion, Guns and Opioids
Pediatrics: Spillover Effects Of Adult Medicaid Expansions On Children’s Use Of Preventive Services
In our study, we demonstrate that Medicaid expansions targeted at low-income adults are associated with increased receipt of recommended pediatric preventive care for their children. This finding reveals an important spillover effect of parental insurance coverage that should be considered in future policy decisions surrounding adult Medicaid eligibility. (Venkataramani, Pollack and Roberts, 12/1)
Urban Institute: Medicare’s Evolving Approach To Paying For Primary Care
Wide differences in incomes for primary care and specialty practitioners contribute to shortages of primary care physicians in many areas of the country. A new analysis, prepared by researchers at the Urban Institute with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, explores the two reform methods the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is using to address underpayment for primary care in Medicare: new primary care billing codes and demonstrations. New billing codes incentivize specific activities that CMS knows it wants clinicians to engage in, while demonstrations test whether CMS can achieve favorable outcomes by paying for promising new care delivery approaches. (Burton, Berenson and Zuckerman, 12/7)
Health Affairs: Mortality Quadrupled Among Opioid-Driven Hospitalizations, Notably Within Lower-Income And Disabled White Populations
Hospitals play an important role in caring for patients in the current opioid crisis, but data on the outcomes and composition of opioid-driven hospitalizations in the United States have been lacking. Nationally representative all-payer data for the period 1993–2014 from the National Inpatient Sample were used to compare the mortality rates and composition of hospitalizations with opioid-related primary diagnoses and those of hospitalizations for other drugs and for all other causes. Mortality among opioid-driven hospitalizations increased from 0.43 percent before 2000 to 2.02 percent in 2014, an average increase of 0.12 percentage points per year relative to the mortality of hospitalizations due to other drugs—which was unchanged. (Song, 12/4)
The Commonwealth Fund: Big Five Health Insurers’ Membership And Revenue Trends
The five largest U.S. commercial health insurers collectively cover more than two-fifths of the insured population. Over the past decade, these companies’ bottom lines have become increasingly linked to Medicare and Medicaid, with the two programs accounting for 59 percent of revenues in 2016. Access to coverage could be improved if insurers that participate in Medicaid or Medicare were required to also participate in the marketplaces in the same geographic area. (Schoen and Collins, 12/4)
Pediatrics: Weapon Carrying Among Victims Of Bullying
Pediatricians should recognize that [victims of bullies], especially those who have experienced 1 or more indicators of peer aggression in conjunction, are at substantially increased risk of weapon carrying. (Pham, Schapiro and Adesman, 12/1)
