Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Critics Say New COVID Reporting System Could Overwhelm Hospitals, Lead To Drug Shortages
State health leaders, public health experts and hospital officials warn that an abrupt change in how the Trump administration requires them to report coronavirus data will increase the burden on facilities already strained by the pandemic and could impede the distribution of critical medicines. The opposition came after the Department of Health and Human Services notified governors and hospital leaders this week that it was changing the protocol for sending the federal government daily information about coronavirus patients, supplies and bed capacity. Administration officials say that replacing a data-collection system run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would streamline reporting and lead to more efficient distribution of therapeutics, testing supplies and protective gear. (Goldstein and Sun, 7/15)
An estimated 659,000 adults in Texas lost health care coverage with their jobs between February and May as employers laid off workers in droves, according to new reports. (Wu, 7/15)
Georgia has streamlined its proposal to the feds for a waiver on health insurance rules, and has postponed its launch till 2022. State officials cited “the unanticipated impact of COVID-19 on the state and its residents’’ in the announcement last week about the changes. ... The state plan, as revised, still features reinsurance. That’s an effort to stabilize health insurance premiums by capping the cost that insurers incur in covering people with high medical costs. (Miller, 7/13)
Dropped from the waiver is [Gov. Brian] Kemp’s idea to subsidize new types of plans on the state’s ACA marketplace, cheaper plans that may have somewhat skimpier or specially designed coverage. Right now federal subsidies only go to lower the price of full-coverage, regular plans. (Hart, 7/15)
A national primary-care physician association and an employer group have teamed up to develop a care model that aims to shift away from fee-for-service reimbursement. The American Academy of Family Physicians and National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions plan to leverage regional employer coalitions and physician networks to form a national primary-care model based on a prospective payment system, although the specifics of which have not been hammered out. (Kacik, 7/15)
