…of Coronavirus on Community Health Centers. Kaiser Family Foundation, May 20, 2020. Community health centers play a vital role by providing free and low-cost care to low-income populations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CHCs offer testing services and triage patients to avoid overwhelming hospital systems, while continuing to provide behavioral health and primary care. Researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed…
…federal training platform to certify new Navigators, causing significant delays in ramping up a statewide call center. However, Navigators reported that CMS was able to relax requirements that a call center representative be on the phone for virtual appointments, improving their ability to assist consumers. Virtual Assistance Is Not Feasible for Everyone Many of the most vulnerable consumers need in-person…
…data to better understand the challenges facing communities of color. We can proactively seek out voices in those communities who are documenting and sharing their lived experiences. We can consciously and carefully assess the disparate impacts of policy choices, and work a lot harder to lift up those policies that lift up people of color. We don’t pretend that our…
…plans and financial assistance. During the COVID-19 crisis, states that run their own ACA marketplaces have more opportunities to help consumers than states relying on the federally facilitated marketplace, and state-based marketplaces (SBM) are taking up that mantle. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR experts Rachel Schwab, Justin Giovannelli and Kevin Lucia explore…
…community experiences, widely accessible and free testing and vaccination is our only option. Extraordinary times call for an extraordinarily different kind of response. Sabrina Corlette, “I’ve Been Calling for Greater Private Insurance Coverage of COVID-19 Testing. I’ve Been Wrong,” Health Affairs Blog, May 18, 2020, https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200513.267462/full/. Copyright © 2020 Health Affairs by Project HOPE – The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc….
…plans could leave enrollees who get sick holding the financial bag. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Idaho’s Enhanced Short-term Plans Have Limitations Last year, Idaho’s insurers began offering a new health insurance product to Idaho consumers, called enhanced short-term plans. The state has plugged these plans as an affordable alternative to ACA-compliant coverage, and intends to allow companies to sell them…
…dispute resolution process. And a few states have added protections specific to the pandemic. For health insurance subject to state regulation, these laws should dictate payment for COVID-related cases. Lastly, emergency rooms, clinics, and hospital-employed physicians often charge facility fees in addition to charges for professional services. Although the HHS’ guidance to date does not address whether facility fees are…
During February’s State of the Union address, President Trump touted his administration’s efforts to expand access to short-term health plans that do not comply with any of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) consumer protections. Short-term plans are often cheaper than ACA-compliant plans because they can deny coverage to people with preexisting health conditions, impose higher cost-sharing, and exclude entire categories…
…the impact of deferred care on net health care costs. Collins S, et al. New Survey Finds Americans Suffering Health Coverage Insecurity Along with Job Losses. The Commonwealth Fund, April 21, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has had disastrous effects on the labor market with one in five workers in the U.S. filing for unemployment since the mid-March. Because the majority…
…specific geographic areas. UnitedHealth Group has invested in creating two dozen new ICD-10 codes related to SDOH, which can trigger referrals to social supports, and aims to expand health system data reporting to include SDOH categories. In effect, the company can identify non-clinical barriers to health for their members, which serves to better match future funding efforts with actual community…
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.
