State News

Patients of Hawaii providers exposed to peer comparisons in Hawaii experienced a 3 percentage-point increase in quality scores compared to a control group, according to a study in Health Affairs. This finding underscores the effectiveness of peer comparisons as a way to improve healthcare quality and supports Medicare’s decisions to provide comparative feedback as part of primary care and specialty payment reform programs. 

A brief from the Colorado Health Institute looks at how telemedicine has boomed due to the COVID-19 crisis and whether Colorado will continue to use telemedicine at current levels once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. The Colorado Health Institute identified five strategic policy areas that federal and state leaders have targeted to expand telemedicine, summarized with the acronym RAPID: reimbursement; access to services; professionals; information; and definitions. This brief also outlines key questions and research opportunities to guide policy discussions and offers profiles of how different providers have begun to use telehealth within the state.

Colorado’s Medicaid program is projecting well over half a million (563,000) more Coloradans will enroll in Medicaid between April and December, according to a new report from the Colorado Health Institute on the impacts of COVID-19 on state hospitals. This would be the biggest surge in Medicaid enrollment in Colorado’s history—larger than its peak during the 2014 Medicaid expansion. Most of the expected new Medicaid beneficiaries formerly had employer-sponsored insurance, which reimburses hospitals at a much higher rate than Medicaid. This surge is expected to reduce the revenue of Colorado hospitals by $500 million over the next year.

The California Department of Health Care Services announced that it will postpone the implementation of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative in order to focus on COVID-19, reports Community Catalyst. CalAIM is a multi-year initiative to improve the state’s Medicaid system for vulnerable populations. The major components of CalAIM build upon the successful outcomes of various pilots, including the Coordinated Care Initiative.

Limited healthcare resources, high rates of preexisting conditions among residents and widespread poverty are among the factors that make Mississippi vulnerable, according to the Surgo Foundation's COVID-19 Vulnerability Index, reports the Clarion Ledger. The index is a measure of how at risk a community is when the virus hits. State rankings were based on factors like: resident socioeconomic status; household composition and disability; minority status and language; access to transportation; epidemiological factors; and healthcare system factors.

Virginia will pilot a program with the City of Richmond to increase equitable access to personal protective equipment in underserved communities that may be most adversely impacted by the virus, according to the governor's office. Virginia’s Health Equity Leadership Task Force is working to leverage data to prioritize areas experiencing disproportionate impacts and is partnering with the City of Richmond to establish policies and programs to address inequities.   The task force, created in March 2020, serves as the Commonwealth’s first-ever coalition during an emergency response to ensure a health equity lens is applied to all decision making within Virginia’s ongoing response.    

The Governor of Maryland has vetoed a measure to fund the state's fledgling Prescription Drug Affordability Board, reports Maryland Matters. Senate Bill 669 and House Bill 1095 would set up a funding source for the panel, which was created in 2019 and began meeting for the first time in 2020. The board was established by lawmakers to identify ways to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Though the funding was vetoed, the 2019 legislation that created the board guarantees it will receive state funds in the form of a loan on July 1. The board has until December 31 to identify a way to fund its operations and to repay the loan from the general fund starting next year.

A recent study of COVID-19 patients in Georgia (primarily metropolitan Atlanta) showed that 1 in 4 hospitalized patients had no recognized risk factors for severe COVID-19. Most patients identified as Black, and their clinical outcomes were similar to those of non-Black patients. In other words, though the frequency of invasive mechanical ventilation and fatality did not differ by race, Black patients were disproportionately represented among hospitalized patients, reflecting greater severity of COVID-19 among this population.

The Louisiana Department of Health has released an interim report on its Reducing Maternal Morbidity Initiative, focused on reducing preventable maternal mortality and morbidity related to hemorrhage and hypertension, while also focusing on reducing racial disparities in these maternal outcomes. Preliminary outcomes indicated that severe maternal morbidity among women with hemorrhage and severe hypertension is decreasing in birthing facilities in the Perinatal Quality Collaborative.