Congress may have eliminated the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for individual health insurance, but New Jersey’s legislature approved a bill requiring people without health insurance to pay a penalty—the higher of either 2.5 percent of their household income, or $695 per adult and $347 per child. If signed by the governor, the state will be the first to issue a statewide individual health
insurance
mandate. Funds from the penalty will go to a pool to help pay the claims of people who are catastrophically ill. (
NJ.com
)
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Hospital price growth of 3.7 percent drove overall health care price acceleration in February, according to analysis by Altarum. Hospital spending represents 32 percent of national health spending. Nursing home care grew at the fastest rate (7.9 percent) and prescription drugs grew (uncharacteristically) slowest (4.2 percent). Overall, national health spending was $3.6 trillion in February, almost five percent higher than it was a year ago.
(
Modern Healthcare
;
Altarum report
)
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Innovation & Transformation
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New research shows a majority (52 percent) of patients can now access their medical records online, but they’re not quite rushing to do it. Only 28 percent viewed them at least once last year, according to a survey by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Viewing test results was the top reason patients accessed online medical records, and nearly half used online systems for secure messaging. The research showed that patients whose providers encouraged them to access online records were nearly twice as likely to do so. (
Clinical Innovation + Technology
;
ONC report
)
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Hospitals aren’t going away soon, but as more care can safely be delivered at home or in outpatient settings, fewer services will be delivered within hospital walls, health care leaders say. Bundled payments allow services to be offered in any setting, and many conditions can now be better delivered at home, in microhospitals or in mobile clinics—with lower mortality rates, lower cost and higher patient satisfaction. Integrated delivery systems like Geisinger Health in Pennsylvania are embracing the changes; CEO David Feinberg says his goal is to put his own hospitals “out of business” by keeping patients healthier. (
The Wall Street Journal
)
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The CEO's Guide to Restoring the American Dream offers a behind-the-scenes look at how public and private employers and unions across the U.S. are reducing their spending by 20 percent or more while improving care quality and access. The book uses real-life examples to outline how top-performing benefits purchasers take control of the purchasing process, align economic incentives and apply simple, practical and proven approaches.The new edition also unpacks how employers have been the key (unwitting) enabler of the opioid crisis and how smart employers are going upstream to solve the opioid problem before it happens. Now available to H2RMinutes subscribers as a free download
here.
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Access to care has improved for those who gained insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but for those without coverage, getting an appointment remains just as hard. Researchers found that in 2012 and in 2016, those who could pay in full at the point of care could get an appointment as a new primary care patient 80 percent of the time, but those who could pay only a portion of the cost were able to get an appointment 12 percent of the time. The study tested both private pay and federally-qualified health center providers; the latter were four times more likely to offer appointments at reduced cost.
(
Reuters
;
HealthAffairs
)
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Within just three months, 12 percent of patients in a medication-assisted opioid recovery program used take-home overdose kits to save their friends, families and strangers. The goal of the study was to supply the patients’ families with the kits; some 44 percent of study participants had overdosed themselves prior to participation. Advocates believe making the kits more widely available would save more lives, but barriers remain—cost, training time and resistance among providers.
(
MedPageToday
)
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FDA bans pure caffeine:
The Food and Drug Administration says selling powdered caffeine as a dietary supplement is illegal and warned retailers to stop selling it. The warning comes after two people died after ingesting it; as little as a teaspoon is a potentially toxic dose. Some consumers mix caffeine into workout cocktails.
(
Bloomberg Technology
)
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Forgetful? Stop sitting so much:
Researchers find that sitting too much correlates with thinning of the part of the brain that’s key to learning and memory. While some volume decrease in the region happens naturally with age, every hour of sitting is associated with a 2 percent decrease in thickness of the medial temporal lobe. Even regular bouts of intensive exercise won’t undo the damage, the study lead says; it’s better to simply get up and move around.
(
Los Angeles Times
)
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Amazon backs away from pharmaceuticals:
Insiders say Amazon is putting plans to sell and distribute pharmaceutical products on hold for now. The retail giant hit snags in its efforts to convince hospitals to leave long-standing purchasing partners behind. Logistical problems
—
like the ability to safely handle temperature-sensitive products and high-risk, implantable patient devices
—
also come into play. Amazon is actively selling low-risk bulk medical products to smaller clinics in 48 states, however. (
CNBC
)
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In this fascinating multi-media piece, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks the contributing causes, interventions and effects of the major public health crisis that took more than 50 million lives worldwide. (
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
)
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MarketVoices...quotes worth reading
“We get healthcare price growth approaching those higher levels and that is not a movie that ends well." Paul Hughes-Cromwick, co-director of sustainable health spending strategies with Altarum, as quoted in
Modern Healthcare
.
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Editor
Sandy Mau
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