State News

Healthcare organizations across the U.S. are developing new approaches to address patients’ social needs. Medicaid programs are uniquely placed to support these activities, given their central role in supporting low-income Americans, yet little evidence is available to guide Medicaid initiatives in this area. A study in Health Affairs examined how Medicaid funding was used to support social interventions in sites involved in California and Oregon’s payment reforms. Investments were made in direct services—including care coordination, housing services, food insecurity programs and legal supports—as well as capacity-building programs for healthcare and community-based organizations. Several factors influenced program implementation, including the local health system context and wider community factors. These findings offer insights to healthcare leaders and policymakers as they develop new approaches to improve population health.

Rutland Regional Medical Center was the only Vermont hospital to receive an ‘A’ rating from The Leapfrog Group’s Spring 2019 Hospital Safety Grade for its efforts to protect patients from harm and provide safer healthcare, according to Vermont Business Magazine. The Safety Grade assigns an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care. Rutland Regional was one of only 832 hospitals to receive this rating, out of over 2600 nationwide.

The District’s latest “health equity” maps show a city divided by race and income – how well you live, or sometimes whether you live at all, can depend on what side of the line you are on, reports The Washington Post. Average life expectancy in Woodley Park, a wealthy and predominantly white neighborhood, is 21 years higher than in the St. Elizabeths neighborhood, which is poor and predominantly black. Additionally, infant mortality for babies with black mothers is three times higher than for babies with white mothers. Mothers’ hypertension is a factor in these premature deaths, and stress from continued exposure to racism and discrimination – in addition to structural and institutional factors that perpetuate persistent inequities – exerts a great toll both on physical and mental health. The D.C. Health Department’s report recommends engaging a broad spectrum of the community in efforts to address these stressors and focusing on “changing community conditions, not on blaming individuals or groups for their disadvantaged status.”

Health care spending for Minnesota businesses and their workers jumped 9.6% last year - nearly triple the national growth rate. According to the Star Tribune, Minnesota was an early user of strategies such as moving workers to high-deductible health plans and enticing them to pick cheaper generic prescription drugs. The Minnesota Health Action Group reported the results of it's annual survey of employers regarding workplace benefits. The survey showed that for the first time, the number of businesses offering high-deductible plans exceeded those offering classic preferred provider plans and that cost-sharing by workers increased by 3 percentage points from last year. 

Missouri and Kansas have joined 41 other states and Puerto Rico in a lawsuit accusing generic drug makers of conspiring to manipulate and drive up prices for more than 100 generic drugs, reports KCUR. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Connecticut, alleges that generic drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals significantly raised prices on more than 100 generic drugs beginning in July 2013 and colluded with competing companies to carve up markets and raise prices on at least 86 of those drugs. Missouri’s Attorney General called the alleged conspiracy “one of the most damaging and far-reaching price fixing schemes in modern history, with certain companies inflating prices by nearly 1,000%.”

Missouri and Kansas have joined 41 other states and Puerto Rico in a lawsuit accusing generic drug makers of conspiring to manipulate and drive up prices for more than 100 generic drugs, reports KCUR. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Connecticut, alleges that generic drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals significantly raised prices on more than 100 generic drugs beginning in July 2013 and colluded with competing companies to carve up markets and raise prices on at least 86 of those drugs. Missouri’s Attorney General called the alleged conspiracy “one of the most damaging and far-reaching price fixing schemes in modern history, with certain companies inflating prices by nearly 1,000%.”

Maryland’s Governor is expected to sign the Maryland Easy Enrollment Health Insurance Program (MEEHP), which will use income tax filing as an immediate onramp to health coverage. An uninsured tax filer will be able to check a box on their state income tax return asking the Maryland health insurance exchange to determine their eligibility for free or low-cost insurance and have relevant information from their tax return sent to the exchange, according to Health Affairs. It is expected that this new enrollment system will go into effect in January 2020, when returns are filed for tax year 2019, but implementation may be delayed to January 2021 if the state tax agency finds the original timeline infeasible. 

Montefiore Health Systems worked with a startup, Valera Health, using a HIPAA-compliant app to better engage patients and give them more context about their care. According to MedCity News, Montefiore began working with Valera Health after receiving a grant from the CMS Innovation Center to develop a financially sustainable way to integrate behavioral care and primary care. Montefiore began using the Valera app during a pilot study that began in July 2016, which found that patients using the app missed fewer appointments, connected more frequently with their care teams than with phone calls, and experienced significant improvement in depression and anxiety scores, as well as remission rates. 

Six Minnesota diabetes activists traveled to Canada to purchase $1,265 worth of insulin that would have cost them $12,400 in the U.S. According to the Star Tribune, insulin prices in the U.S. doubled between 2012 and 2016, with cases of insulin rationing becoming more common. The high price of insulin reflects many factors, including patent protections that keep competitors out of the market.