State News

Massachusetts’ top insurance lobbying group will launch a research study and has started a pledge focused on racial disparities in healthcare, reports the Boston Business Journal. The Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, which includes 17 of the state’s insurance carriers, has created a compact among members for diversity and inclusion in the healthcare workforce. The insurance plans have committed to promoting a diverse culture, supporting workforce diversity through the creation of a pipeline to employment and developing and increasing opportunities for diverse candidates through targeted entry level healthcare jobs. The group will also sponsor a $200,000 research study looking at racial disparities within telehealth use which would seek to further understand how COVID-19 has changed telehealth usage and how insurance, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity have further shaped use. The study, to be led by researchers from the Department of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and advisors from the state’s Health Policy Commission, will identify communities with equity gaps and develop a plan to address them. 

Larimer County, Colorado, partnered with Healthcare Bluebook to find ways to guide their health plan members to high-value providers, resulting in significant savings for both patients and the county, reports American City and County. Through this partnership, Larimer County employees use an online tool compiled by Healthcare Bluebook that shows provider scores on both quality and costs based on healthcare providers’ health outcomes. Consumers receive a portion of the overall savings from the program—in its first year, the program produced a return on investment of over 340 percent. In the coming year, the county will launch a new pilot program with Healthcare Bluebook to eliminate member cost sharing for certain procedures when members choose a high-value provider. 

Recently released 2019 data from the biennial Louisiana Health Insurance Survey (LHIS) found that the state uninsured rate for nonelderly adults age 19-64 (11.1%) measured lower than the national average, as did the state uninsured rate for children (3.8%). Moreover, 32 percent of respondents felt their costs were unreasonable a majority of the time. Other topics measured by the survey include whether respondents felt their healthcare needs were being met, healthcare provider availability and the reasonability of healthcare costs in the state.

A recent analysis of Montana’s 47 nonprofit hospitals’ community benefit spending—required in exchange for their tax-exempt status—found that the millions of dollars spent on community needs had no impact on residents’ health, reports NASHP. Montana’s Legislative Audit Division completed a report that calculated that the state’s nonprofit hospitals received more than $146 million in tax exemptions in 2016 and self-reported more than $257 million in community benefit spending—4 percent of which went to community health improvement, while 87 percent directly funded hospital services, raising concerns about efficiency. This finding is consistent with national research showing that only a small percentage of community benefit spending goes to community-based activities aimed at upstream drivers of health. The Division recommended the state enact laws defining reporting expectations for hospital community benefit spending and its impact on community health to ensure community benefit spending reflects state and community health goals.

Hawaii faces a unique set of challenges inhibiting the recruitment and retention of physicians to address its decade-long workforce shortage, including lower average salary, a high cost of living and an aging workforce, according to State of Reform. The Hawaii Physician Shortage Crisis Task Force is considering solutions to improve the economic attractiveness of working in the state, including: (1) increasing Medicare payments in Hawaii to reflect delivery challenges such as geographic isolation, small population, the limited number of providers/specialists and reduced competition and (2) exempting physician medical practices from paying General Excise Tax. If gone unchecked, the Big Island will have a 72% physician shortage by the year 2030.

Adam Woodrum was biking with his wife and kids when his 9-year old son Robert crashed his bike. Robert received anesthesia and stiches in the emergency department. In this edition of Kaiser Health News’ Bill of the Month, it is revealed that the insurance company denied the medical claim and the Woodrums were charged the entire bill of $18,933.44. This is an example of subrogation, where health insurers try to save money when an accident is involved by passing the buck to other insurers (such as auto or homeowners). Eventually, the insurance company reconsidered the claim after Adam completed an accident questionnaire stating that there was no liable third party responsible for the bike crash.

Black and Native American babies in Kansas died at almost twice the rate as white infants in their first year of life from 2013-2017, according to KCUR. The data, published in a report from the National Collaborative for Health Equity, suggests that race plays a major role in a community’s health. Factors believed to increase infant mortality in Kansas communities of color, specifically, include a higher percentage of residents living in areas with a high density of liquor stores and a higher frequency of robberies and homicides, the stress of which can damage the health of expectant mothers and their babies. One possible solution is to increase the number of black physicians practicing in these communities, as studies show that mortality rates for black babies can drop by half when they are cared for by a black physician.

Cancer and rheumatoid arthritis brand-name drugs continue to be the most expensive for Oregon residents, according to new data from the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. For the second year in a row, the brand-name drug Humira, commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, was the costliest prescription drug reported by Oregon’s health insurance companies, as well as the most prescribed specialty drug. Glatiramer, used to treat multiple sclerosis, was the most expensive generic drug reported, costing insurance companies approximately $2,800 per prescription. To determine what insurers paid on average for each prescription and to identify the most expensive prescriptions, the program team examined claims data for drugs prescribed to 10 or more enrollees and compared the total dollars spent by insurers to the corresponding prescription counts for each drug.

In 2016, nearly 70 percent of Alabama’s pregnancy-related deaths were preventable, according to a report from the state's Department of Public Health and Maternal Mortality Review Committee. The committee recommended that Alabama improve maternal health by: expanding Medicaid coverage; increasing resources and services for women with mental health and substance use disorders; improving Medicaid reimbursement for providers; and encouraging broader education of mothers and families on maternal death risk factors. In this opinion piece in the Montgomery Advertiser, the author notes that Black women in the state die at three to four times the rate of white women from pregnancy-related complications, showing the importance of eliminating racial disparities in access to quality and affordable healthcare.