Newswire Archives
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an evaluation report for the first performance year of the agency’s Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model, which generated net savings to Medicare of about $62 million while maintaining quality of care for beneficiaries.
The report can be obtained at https://innovation.cms.gov/Files/reports/nextgenaco-firstannrpt.pdf.
The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) will hold its next Institute on October 3-5, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ. The institute will provide participants the opportunity to acquire and utilize knowledge and skills to further advance their existing institutional interprofessional education and collaborative practice program.
Health professions faculty and their IPE colleagues and collaborative practice partners will have both quality time and dedicated space for guided learning, team-based planning activities, and consultation with experts and peers in order to emerge with an advanced programmatic action plan to augment their current IPE and IPC initiatives in program and outcomes evaluation and assessment. The last day for early bird registration is September 13.
More information can be found here.
The Urban Institute’s Health Reform Monitoring Survey finds that 54.6% of 2018 Marketplace health plan enrollees nationwide received help from a source other than a website the last time they looked for information or enrollment assistance – down from 63.6% in 2016. A growing minority (39.3%) of Marketplace enrollees relied solely on a website for information or enrollment assistance in 2018, up from 22.7% two years ago.
The report can be obtained at http://hrms.urban.org/quicktakes/55-percent-marketplace-enrollees-turn-others-information-assistance-health-plan.html.
Health care added 16,700 new jobs in July 2018, below the 12-month average of 23,800 new jobs per month. Hospitals added 6,800 jobs in July, under the 12-month average of 7,900. Ambulatory settings such as physician offices added 9,900 new jobs, below the 12-month average of 15,600. Year over year (July 2018 compared to July 2017), health jobs grew by 1.8% while non-health jobs grew by 1.6% and the health share of total jobs was steady at 10.75%.
The report can be obtained at
https://altarum.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-related-files/SHSS-Labor-Brief_August_2018.pdf.
One in four U.S. adults has a disability that has an impact on major life activities, including 40 percent of adults age 65 and older, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most common disability type – mobility, or serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs – affects one in seven adults.
The report can be obtained at
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6732a3.htm?s_cid=mm6732a3_e.
Changes in requirements by accreditors for higher education institutions could encourage them to change their tax status in order to reduce federal oversight.. Public institutions are beginning to purchase for-profit institutions, previously difficult and burdensome to accomplish, and others are considering changing to a nonprofit status. Those changes may no longer face as much scrutiny by the federal government, especially by the Department of Education which has relaxed oversight since the Obama Administration.
Read the full article from Inside Higher Education here.
A report from the U.S. Census Bureau provides historical context and data from the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey to highlight characteristics that are more current. Differences can be seen by demographic, social, and geographic characteristics across the digital divide between those who have and those who lack access to computers and the internet, which affects the ability of individuals to obtain many forms of health information.
The report can be obtained at https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2018/acs/ACS-39.pdf..
A new report from the Urban Institute report provides the first look at the relationship between a borrower’s credit history and the probability of default. Using nationally representative data from one of the nation’s three credit bureaus and following student borrowers who entered repayment in 2012, new light is shed on who defaults.
The report can be obtained at https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/98884/underwater_on_student_debt.pdf.
The end of the individual mandate penalty in 2019 and the Trump administration's promotion of short-term health plans are among recent policy changes that significantly could erode the ability to find affordable, comprehensive coverage in the individual insurance market. In a new Commonwealth Fund report, RAND researchers examine several options for making health insurance more accessible to Americans who shop for their own coverage.
The report can be obtained at https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/2018-08/Liu_expanding_enrollment_without_mandate.pdf.
An announcement from the Department of Education reveals that it plans to repeal the Obama administration’s gainful employment rule. In place of the rule, the Department plans to expand program-level outcomes data available from the College Scorecard, but without any measures that punish those programs with poor outcomes.
More information can be obtained at https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2017/gainfulemployment.html.
On August 9, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that would overhaul the Medicare Shared Savings Program, which is the program established by the Affordable Care Act and launched in 2012 under which the vast majority of Medicare’s Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) operate. The redesigned program is called “Pathways to Success.”
More information can be obtained at https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-proposes-pathways-success-overhaul-medicares-aco-program.
A new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) presents information on enrollment in and spending for Medicaid managed care and analyzes factors affecting those measures—including the types of beneficiaries, geographic areas, and range of services that managed care programs cover.
The report can be obtained at https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-08/54235-MMC_chartbook.pdf.
The Trump Administration issued a final rule on August 3, 2018 reversing federal limits on short-term health coverage, allowing such plans to become a long-term alternative to individual-market coverage. To the Point, a publication of The Commonwealth Fund, discusses how insurance departments in the 17 states that run their own marketplaces are working on the eve of this policy shift.
More information can be obtained at https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2018/do-states-know-short-term-health-plan-markets.
The Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies at the National Academy of Sciences hosted a 2-day public workshop on March 20 and 21, 2018 to explore several objectives developed by a planning committee, including the private health system and federal perspectives on the nation’s capacity to respond to threats to health, safety, and security.
A workshop report can be obtained at https://www.nap.edu/read/25203/chapter/1#vi.
Published in today’s edition of the Federal Register, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury issued a final rule to allow for the sale and renewal of short-term, limited-duration plans that cover longer periods than the previous maximum period of less than three months. Such coverage now can cover an initial period of less than 12 months, and, taking into account any extensions, a maximum duration of no longer than 36 months in total. The action is aimed at helping increase choices for Americans faced with escalating premiums and dwindling options in the individual insurance market.
The final rule can be obtained at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-08-03/pdf/2018-16568.pdf.
For the first time, the percentage of the American population age 25 and older that completed high school or higher levels of education reached 90 percent in 2017. The nation has made giant strides in education since 1940, when only 24 percent of individuals age 25 and older had finished four years of high school or more, according to recently released educational attainment data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.
Data can be obtained at https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html?eml=gd&utm_campaign=20180801msacos1ccstors&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery.
A Data Point report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) examines literacy and numeracy skills of U.S. men and women. They did not have different literacy scores, but men had higher numeracy scores overall, as well as in each age group and educational attainment level examined. Levels of literacy and numeracy affect how successful patients are in interacting effectively with health care providers.
The report can be obtained at https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018164.pdf.
On Thursday, August 30 at 2:00 p.m. ET the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) will be hosting a free webinar titled “An IPE Approach to the Opioid Epidemic” featuring panelists Drs. Patricia J. Ohtake (University at Buffalo) and Wendy E. Braund (University of Pittsburgh). Drs. Ohtake and Braund will share remarks on designing and implementing collaborative strategies in response to the opioid epidemic.
For additional information and to register for this webinar, click here.
The Department of Education's principal deputy for higher education, Diane Auer Jones, discussed the Department's proposal to reduce federal oversight of accreditors, re-examine online education requirements, drop the Obama Administration's definition of the credit hour, possibly expand the use of Pell grants for short-term programs, and require detailed justification from colleges that reject transfer credits.
Read the full article here.
An analysis from the Urban Institute provides state-by-state estimates of the impact on insurance coverage, premiums, and mandate penalty revenues if the states were to adopt individual mandates. If all states did so, the number of uninsured would be lower by 3.9 million individuals in 2019 and by 7.5 million in 2022. On average, marketplace premiums would be 11.8% lower in 2019.
The report can be obtained at https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/98805/2001925_state_based_individual_mandates_2.pdf.
