State News

Of the ten counties nationally with the highest death rates from COVID-19, five are in Georgia, reports Georgia Health News. Hancock County is first on the list, with a COVID-19 death rate of 45.7 per 10,000 residents and a population where 3 in 4 residents are people of color. These counties are located in rural areas and have high levels of poverty and chronic disease, high uninsured rates, more older residents and large proportions of racial and ethnic minority groups. They also have a long history of systemic racism, which has served as a pre-existing condition for high COVID-19 death rates. Morehouse School of Medicine, an Atlanta school, is using a $40 million federal grant to implement an initiative to fight COVID-19 in minority rural communities.

Georgia’s new Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration program, “Pathways to Coverage,” has been approved, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced. This program will allow working-age Georgia residents (ages 19-64) who are otherwise ineligible for Medicaid to opt into Medicaid coverage by participating in qualifying activities, such as working 80 hours a month. The program applies to individuals with incomes less than or equal to 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL). The state expects over 30,000 Georgia residents will receive Medicaid coverage during the first year of this demonstration program.

Arkansas Health & Wellness and Arkansas Total Care will be deploying FirstNet to rural healthcare providers and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in Arkansas to expand access to telehealth services, according to the companies' press release. FirstNet is a high-speed broadband communications platform built for America's first responders and the extended public safety community. This program will help rural providers and FQHCs integrate virtual care into their workflows and will better enable providers to serve patients in rural areas.

The California Health Care Foundation released an issue brief exploring California’s experimentation with alternative payment models (APMs) to address rising healthcare costs and improve quality of care, according to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center. The report outlines actions the state should consider to promote the adoption of APMs, including: requiring a certain percentage of spending in Medicaid and public employee benefit programs to flow through APMs; establishing measures to track progress toward APM adoption goals; assessing current APM adoption across all of the state’s healthcare markets; and collaborating with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to sponsor a specific APM.

The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance published a report of a study focused on New Jersey’s provision of additional financial relief for consumers through state‐sponsored premium subsidies that are in addition to the premium and cost‐sharing subsidies currently provided under the Affordable Care Act. The study found that, overall, introducing state-sponsored premium subsidies will make health insurance coverage purchased through Get Covered New Jersey more affordable for those eligible. Based on prior enrollment results, approximately 8 in 10 consumers purchasing coverage on Get Covered New Jersey are expected to qualify for assistance. 

A new report from the University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center found that physical access to healthcare is a luxury that Black Belt communities don’t enjoy, reports the Alabama Political Reporter. The Education Policy Center defines the Black Belt of Alabama as comprising of 24 counties. Of those, 17 have fewer than the statewide average of 3.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people, according to the report. Indeed, four of the Black Belt counties have no hospitals, with some hospitals over an hour away. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, access to healthcare for rural residents was tenuous. Researchers note that hospitals in states that chose to expand Medicaid were 84 percent less likely to close, because the increased coverage for poorer rural residents encouraged care access and boosted revenue for hospitals that care for high numbers of uninsured residents.  

The Latino Impact Plan examines inequities and barriers within the Rhode Island Latinx community across three issue areas: economic equity, health and education, with an additional emphasis on the impact of the pandemic, according to a press release from the Latino Policy Institute. The plan surfaces healthcare access and insurance coverage disparities and highlights how holistic care serves a critical role in communities. The report made several recommendations to address inequities, including healthcare coverage for all children and inclusive statewide communications and engagement. 

A new report commissioned by the California Future Health Workforce Commission assesses financial support offered to Californians training to become non-physician providers and the data collected on these efforts to help overcome barriers to meeting workforce needs across the state. Recommendations include expanding state-level opportunities for financing educational debt for primary care non-physician providers and making primary care more appealing to offset trends toward specialization.

The Washington State Health Care Authority, governor’s office, state medical association and insurance companies signed a memorandum of understanding committing to improve primary care and develop a new payment model in Washington state, according to a press release. The goals of the initiative are to: increase primary care expenditures while decreasing total health spending; align payment and incentives across payers; align quality metrics across both payers and providers; promote and incentivize integrated, whole-person and team-based primary care, physical and behavioral healthcare and preventive services; improve provider capacity and access; and work with interested public and private employers to spread and scale the model throughout the state.