State News

A new course at the University of Minnesota is teaching undergraduate medical students cultural competency skills, reports the Minnesota Daily. The course focuses on teaching medical professionals about differences in cultural practices and how to communicate with patients who may have a history of medical mistreatment. Leaders in the program say they hope teaching these skills will lead to broader reform in the medical field. The instructor is seeking to make the class a regular offering.

NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center has doubled the rates for childhood vaccinations and health screenings, resulting in prevention of disease and lower costs for treatment and care over its fifty-year history. The center is a community health and dental clinic and social services agency in Minneapolis that was founded to increase access to healthcare and social services in a community that is now 90 percent Black, Latinx or Asian, reports NPR. NorthPoint’s measures, including stocking a free-food shelf with healthy, culturally relevant food, has increased its reach in the diverse community—something many medical centers struggle with. NorthPoint is a community health clinic, not a hospital, so it does not face many of the commercial revenue pressures as many private hospitals and can focus on its mandate to improve public health through a lens of race in the community. This has allowed their community-oriented primary care approach to flourish and improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs. 

Illinois health officials are worried about increasing disparities in maternal health and mortality, with higher maternal deaths than the national average coupled with recent hospital closures, reports the Chicago Tribune. Black women across America are significantly more likely to die from pregnancy-related conditions, as well as deliver infants pre-term and lack access to prenatal care—25 percent of Black women in Chicago do not get adequate prenatal care, compared with 11 percent of white women. State health officials reviewing cases of pregnancy-related deaths have deemed about 72 percent of cases preventable. The Illinois Senate’s Public Health and Health and Human Services committees are looking into ways to shrink the maternal health disparities gap; at a recent hearing, advocates brought up opportunities to tackle these health disparities, including more implicit bias training and diversity in healthcare workers, covering doula services under Medicaid and expanding home visits and creating a birth center.

Most consumers living in Massachusetts, a state with some of the most comprehensive healthcare price transparency laws, have never thought to seek out pricing information, reports RevCycleIntelligence. About 54 percent of the 500 adults in Massachusetts surveyed by the Pioneer Institute said they never thought about trying to obtain price information about healthcare services. Additionally, the survey found that only one in five consumers had ever tried to find pricing information prior to obtaining a healthcare service. The survey also shows that 70 percent of adults who obtained insurance through employers or on the open market in June 2019 did not know that their health insurance carriers had a cost estimator tool. Not only is awareness a major barrier to healthcare price transparency, but consumers may be leaving money on the table.

The Rhode Island Foundation is launching an $8.5 million plan over the next three years to both lead and strengthen diversity, equity, access and inclusion focused efforts in the community, with a primary focus on racial equity, reports Patch. The plan commits to improving health, economic and educational outcomes by focusing on system-wide reforms that stand to benefit those Rhode Islanders who have been left behind. The plan’s first step is to create the Rhode Island Foundation's Equity Leadership Initiative, which will identify and develop opportunities for BIPOC Rhode Islanders to help build a pipeline of future leaders in established positions of influence throughout the state.

Georgia’s Section 1332 State Relief and Empowerment waiver has been approved, announced the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Beginning in plan year 2022, Georgia will implement a reinsurance program that is expected to reduce annual premiums for individuals by an average of 10 percent by covering some insurance costs once claims reach a certain amount. Beginning in plan year 2023, Georgia will transition the individual insurance market from a federally facilitated exchange to a private sector platform called the Georgia Access Model. The Georgia Access Model will serve as a one-stop shop that enables consumers to compare and enroll in plans offered by health insurance companies, web brokers and traditional agents and brokers. The state anticipates that the reinsurance program and the Georgia Access Model will increase health insurance affordability and enrollment.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) and the Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority (CIHA) have entered a contract to support the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) address the health needs of American Indian/Alaska Native Medicaid beneficiaries through an Indian Managed Care entity, according to a press release by NCDHHS. This Indian Managed Care entity if the first of its kind in the nation and will establish a new delivery system, the EBCI Trial Option. The Option will manage the healthcare for North Carolina’s approximately 4,000 tribal Medicaid beneficiaries, with a strong focus on primary care, preventive health, chronic disease management and providing care management for high-need members.

The Governor of Pennsylvania announced the passage of two laws meant to increase coverage for mental health services. These laws require health insurers to verify that they conducted analyses to ensure that their plans offer mental health and substance use disorder coverage that has similar cost sharing and in- and out-of-network coverage compared to physical health services. In addition, insurers must be able to make this documentation available to the state insurance department, policyholders and providers upon request. These laws will help strengthen and enforce mental health parity among insurance plans.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has announced grants totaling more than $3.1 million to increase access to care and enhance quality in rural Wisconsin. According to a press release by DHS, the grants support education and training to assist rural hospitals and clinics in filling “high-need, high-demand” positions. The grants also seek to grow Wisconsin’s rural physician workforce by prioritizing individuals with Wisconsin ties for new resident positions