November 12, 2020 | What Biden’s win may mean for the ACA

INDUSTRY NEWS

Biden-Harris COVID-19 team announced

Soon after the U.S. surpassed 10 million COVID-19 cases, the Biden-Harris transition team formally announced its COVID-19 transition advisory board. It includes, among others, Rick Bright, the ousted head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; Atul Gawande; and Zeke Emanuel. Co-chairs are former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler and Yale’s Marcella Nunez-Smith. The transition team also tapped two health advisers to guide COVID-19 preparations: Beth Cameron, former director of a White House biodefense council that Trump shuttered in 2017, and Rebecca Katz, a Georgetown global health security professor. (STAT News)

Vaccine myths still often go unchecked

Myths and falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine specifically—and vaccines generally—threaten to limit the impact of such a vaccine by creating doubt and mistrust among millions of social media users, according to a new analysis by NewsGuard. It identified 34 Facebook pages that are “super-spreaders” of misinformation. For most of the false or misleading posts the report identified, Facebook did not provide any warning, fact-checking language or links to more credible sources. The sites have large Facebook audiences, most with more than 100,000 likes per page and a total of 14,139,288 likes. (NewsGuard report)

INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION

PCPs and younger docs best at IDing patients for follow-up

Nearly two-thirds (64.7%) of office-based physicians have the computerized capability to identify patients due for preventive or follow-up care, according to research published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Overall, 72.9% of primary care physicians and 58.5% of nonprimary care physicians have this capability. Age played a significant factor: Seventy percent of physicians age 45-54 had this capability vs. 57.2% of those 65-84 years. The findings are based on a 2017 sample of 10,302 physicians. Capability also varied by practice size—for example, 53.1% for solo practices, compared to 69.6% for those with six or more physicians. (Consumer Health Day; MMWR)

Medicaid expansion associated with lower cancer mortality

Medicaid expansion under the ACA was associated with a 2% reduction in mortality for patients with newly diagnosed breast, colorectal and lung cancer, according to a large retrospective analysis published in JAMA Network Open. The reason: earlier diagnoses in states that expanded Medicaid. The expansion group had a 2% decline in hazard of death from the pre- to the post-expansion period. The non-expansion group, by contrast, showed no change in mortality. (MedPage Today; JAMA Network Open)

CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS

What Biden’s win may mean for the ACA

What does Biden’s victory mean for the Affordable Care Act? Much depends on control of the Senate, but in a recent Health Affairs Blog post, Katie Keith, JD, MPH, takes a “tentative first pass at an answer.” The Biden administration could announce an immediate special enrollment period and increase advertising and outreach to spread the word that ACA coverage is available. It could reverse many Trump-era changes through rulemaking, although that would take time. Other unilateral options include providing temporary relief from premium tax credit reconciliation requirements, limiting surprise medical bills and promoting or requiring standardized plans. (Health Affairs)

Survey: SDOH will put biggest strain on health care

Nearly three-quarters of doctors agree that social determinants of health will put the biggest strain on the health care industry come 2021, according to the third part of The Physicians Foundation 2020 Survey of America’s Physicians. Another 44% said addressing health equity and inequity will be key for ensuring patient access to care, the survey showed. These findings come as the COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on the social determinants of health and structural issues that shape it. (PatientEngagementHIT; The Physicians Foundation)

NEW & NOTED

Inappropriate meds: Prescribing potentially inappropriate medications to seniors leads to increased health care utilization and costs, according to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. These meds include antidepressants, barbiturates, androgens, estrogens, NSAIDs, first-generation antihistamines and antipsychotics. (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; UB Now)

Promising vaccine: Pfizer announced Monday that early results from its coronavirus vaccine suggest the shots may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19. This is higher than anticipated and puts the company on track for FDA emergency-use approval this month. (AP)

Catch up on the ACA case: The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in California v. Texas, a case that, for the third time in eight years, could result in the justices striking down the Affordable Care Act. Kaiser Health News offers a refresher on what the issues are and what’s at stake. (Kaiser Health News)

MULTI-MEDIA

Winter is coming. Is household transmission of COVID?

The most recent episode of TTHealthWatch podcast from Texas Tech looks at two emerging COVID-19-related topics, household transmission and monoclonal antibodies for treatment. It also discusses active surveillance for Black men with low risk prostate cancer. (TTHealthWatch)

MARKETVOICES...QUOTES WORTH READING

“Increased Medicaid coverage may remove barriers to accessing the health care system for screening and timely symptom evaluation, and that can translate into better outcomes for patients.”—a prepared statement by Miranda Lam, MD, MBA, of Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, lead author of a study that found Medicaid expansion is linked to lower cancer mortality