Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
“Drivers of Health” Drive Most Health Outcomes
A recent analysis has found that newly coined “drivers of health” are the primary drivers of health outcomes. According to a Commonwealth Fund report, Research indicates that an estimated 20 percent of health outcomes are linked to medical care; the remaining 80 percent stem from socioeconomic, environmental, and behavioral factors referred to as social drivers of health (DOH). These factors – such as homelessness, food insecurity, and exposure to intimate partner violence – are associated with chronic illness, mental health issues, acute hospitalizations, and high health care costs and disproportionately [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for January 4
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for December 21 to January 4. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. No Surprises Act HHS, the departments of Labor and the Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management intend to reopen the comment period for submitting comments on a proposed rule governing federal Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) operations. They plan to publish a notice to this effect in the near future with further details on reopening the comment period. Department of [...]
Expanded Mental Health Options Coming to Medicare
Beginning on January 1, Medicare beneficiaries will have access to more varied types of mental health services. At that time, mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists will become eligible to accept Medicare payments, joining the limited number of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers who have been serving the Medicare population as part of the first expansion of Medicare-eligible mental health providers since 1989. With Medicare planning to pay its new provider types 75 percent of what it pays psychologists, it is not clear how many of those new [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for December 20
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government December 14-20. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress The House is in recess until January 9. The Senate has delayed its recess to continue negotiations on a possible foreign aid and border policy deal. Democrats from the House Ways and Means Committee have published a report on the relationship between the U.S. health care system and climate change. View their report “Health Care and the Climate Crisis: Preparing America’s Health Care [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of the meeting. MACPAC’s December 2023 meeting opened with a session that highlighted findings related to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data collection as part of the Commission’s focus on the collection of primary language and limited English proficiency, SOGI, and disability data for the purposes of assessing and addressing health disparities. During this discussion, we reviewed the purpose of SOGI data and federal and state [...]