Author Archive: CHIR Faculty

Tackling Another Public Health Emergency: Recent State and Federal Policies to Increase Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Access

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While the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) ended in May, the PHE declaration for the opioid crisis continues. Opioid overdose deaths remain alarmingly high, and the Biden administration recently bolstered the federal government’s response to the opioid crisis with new proposed rules to strengthen access to treatment. CHIR’s Rachel Swindle and Kristen Ukeomah explore this proposal as well as other recent state and federal policy changes that aim to reduce barriers to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder.

An Historic Event: A Summary of CMS’s Inaugural Health Equity Conference

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Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) held the first ever CMS Health Equity Conference. CHIR members who attended the inaugural conference provide an overview of the meeting—including a presentation by CHIR’s Christine Monahan—and its implications for current and future health equity initiatives.

The One Year Anniversary of 988: A Roadmap for States Seeking to Expand Access to Behavioral Health Crisis Services

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One year ago, the U.S. transitioned to a new, three-digit nationwide number for suicide prevention and mental health crisis response services. In their latest expert perspective for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Health & Value Strategies project, JoAnn Volk and Sabrina Corlette provide a roadmap for states seeking to expand access to behavioral health crisis services, spotlighting Washington State’s comprehensive approach.

New Georgetown Report and Issue Brief on Outpatient Facility Fee Billing and State Policy Responses

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Consumers are increasingly being exposed to a new expense when they seek outpatient medical care: hospital facility fees. In a new report and issue brief supported by West Health, CHIR’s Christine Monahan, Karen Davenport, and Rachel Swindle explore outpatient facility fee billing in the commercial sector, including the impact of these fees on consumers and how states are responding.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.