Will Humble Federal Budget, Federal Public Health Bud, Wills Blog

Senate Passes Budget Including Health Agencies

Yesterday the US Senate passed the FY19 Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill.  It would provide funding for health agencies for FFY19.  The bill contains a continuing resolution through December 7, 2018 in case the House doesn’t take action on the bill in short order. Here’s a summary:

CDC: $7.9B which is an increase of $126 million from FY18. The bill creates a $50M infectious disease rapid response fund (but the funds only become available for use in the event of a public health emergency). The bill includes $10M to continue efforts to track children and families affected by the Zika virus and $5M to address infectious diseases related to the opioid crisis. 

HRSA: $6.8B, a $107M increase from FY18. This funding includes a $26M increase for the Title V Maternal and Child Health block grant and a $12M increase for the Healthy Start program. 

SAMHSA: $5.7B, which is a $584M increase from FY18.  Sadly, the legislation maintains a prohibition on federal funds for the purchase of syringes or sterile needles but allows communities with rapid increases in cases of HIV and hepatitis to access federal funds for other stuff like substance use counseling and treatment referrals. The bill also includes $1.5B for the state opioid response grants.

The bill doesn’t include the bad policy riders that were in previous versions that would have eliminated funding for important reproductive health services (Title X).

You can read the bill’s text here, the committee report here, and a summary here.

Will Humble Maternal Health, Wills Blog

Leveraging State Policy to Reduce Maternal Mortality

The US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country.  Sadly, it’s getting worse each year.  About 800 American women die and 65,000 almost die during pregnancy or childbirth.

Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at three to four times the rate of white women, even after controlling for social determinants. Women in rural areas also have higher maternal mortality rates than urban women.  Here’s a super-interesting story that highlights some of the issues in an easy to read way.

Fortunately, there are public health policy leverage points that can make a difference: state health departments and Medicaid agencies.

Medicaid finances over half of all births each year in 25 states including Arizona.   All states provide Medicaid coverage for women with incomes up to 133% of poverty during pregnancy and for 60 days after delivery.  But- the scope of services covered and coverage after delivery vary between states.  As a result, some women lose coverage or Medicaid eligibility after that 60-day period (mostly in states without Medicaid expansion).

In states (like AZ, which expanded Medicaid), women have more opportunities to achieve better preconception health because they’re more likely to be able to access contraception and plan their pregnancies, receive primary care services to manage chronic conditions prior to and between pregnancies, and access prenatal and perinatal care once pregnant.

Evidence-based policy making is the key.  29 states including Arizona, have committees that review maternal deaths and make public policy recommendations.  Back in 2011, Arizona passed, and Governor Brewer signed a bill that amended our child fatality review statutes by adding reviews of maternal deaths. This change charged our existing Child Fatality State Teams to review maternal deaths (called the Maternal Mortality Review Subcommittee) and make policy recommendations. The primary goal for the Team is to identify preventive factors and make recommendations for systems change.  

One of the best parts of these review boards is that it is not just public health, but it’s other agencies and community docs and corrections and academics all coming together to review these deaths.  Here are some of the recommendations from the most recent report:

  • All pregnant women must have access to prenatal care;

  • Promote public awareness of the importance of healthy behaviors and women’s overall health prior to pregnancy;

  • Women should always wear proper restraints when riding in cars;

  • Encourage maternal care professionals, organizations, and health facilities to update their standards of practice and care to include all recommended guidelines for the prevention of medical complications;

  • Maternal health-care systems require strengthened, prepared, and educated communities to improve deliveries in health facilities, particularly in rural areas;

  • Increase and streamline access to behavioral health services statewide, including training and education for advanced practice nurses in behavioral health services.

  • Support and implement community suicide prevention and awareness programs, such as Mental Health First Aid;

  • Health care providers should screen frequently for perinatal depression and domestic violence;

  • Institute and follow recommended California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative guidelines (www.cmqcc.org) for the timely transfer and transport to a higher-level care facility for any complications using regional transport services; and 

  • Educate providers on the availability of maternal postpartum resources such as home visiting programs.

  • Some states have gone further.  For example, the South Carolina’s Medicaid agency formed the South Carolina Birth Outcomes Initiative to advance reductions in early elective deliveries; incentivize Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment; promote long-acting reversible contraception; and support vaginal births. 

One outcome of the SC initiative was to reimburse for long-acting birth control (LARC) devices provided in a hospital setting. 

Fortunately, Arizona has also included LARC reimbursement in a hospital setting post-partum.  This is an important policy intervention because LARC provides women with a long-acting and reversible option, so they can better plan future pregnancies – improving opportunities for preconception health, which is a key to improving health outcomes.

Will Humble Medicaid, Opioids, Prevention, Wills Blog

US Senate Proposes Opioid Crisis Response Act

Last week the US Senate released the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, a bipartisan package to address the opioid epidemic. The Act authorizes funding to expand prevention, research, treatment, and recovery programs- but even if it passes as-is, it would still need to go through the actual appropriations process.

The Senate is expected to vote on the Bill soon without the opportunity for amendments and it’s expected to be approved on a broad bipartisan basis (much like the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act was). But, after that, it’s unclear whether the House will vote on this version or the Bill or move to conference the Opioid Crisis Response Act with the recently House-approved “SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (H.R.6)”.  Here’s a summary of what’s in the bill as it sits today:

Medicaid 

  • Clarifies flexibilities around Medicaid’s “Institutions for Mental Disease” (IMD) exclusion where in some cases managed care plans may provide alternative services in lieu of other services that are not permitted under the state plan. 

  • Modifies IMD exclusion for pregnant and postpartum women to address a subset of the prohibition on Medicaid from paying for otherwise coverable services for certain adults while in institutions for mental disease. 

  • Codifies regulations permitting managed care plans to cover treatment in an IMD facility for a certain number of days in a month in lieu of other types of services.

  • Clarifies states’ ability under Medicaid to provide care for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in residential pediatric recovery centers.

  • Directs CMS to issue guidance to states on options for providing services via telehealth that address substance use disorders under Medicaid.

  • Directs CMS to issue guidance on states’ options for treating and managing pain through non-opioid pain treatment and management options.

  • Clarifies states’ ability to access and share data from prescription drug monitoring program databases consistent with the parameters established in state law.

  • Directs HHS to provide technical assistance to states to develop and coordinate housing-related supports and services under Medicaid, either through state plans or waivers, and care coordination services for Medicaid enrollees with substance use disorders. 

Prevention

  • Authorizes CDC’s work to combat the opioid crisis through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data, including through grants for states, localities, and tribes.

  • Authorizes funding through CDC from FY19 – FY24 for states to improve their prescription drug monitoring programs and implement other evidence-based strategies.

  • Authorizes funding from FY19 – FY21 for CDC to support states’ efforts to collect and report data on adverse childhood experiences through existing public health surveys.

  • Authorizes a HHS grant program through 2026 to allow states to develop, maintain, or improve prescription drug monitoring programs and improve their with other states and with other health information technology.

  • Authorizes data collection and analysis through 2023 on neonatal abstinence syndrome or other outcomes related to prenatal substance abuse and misuse, including prenatal opioid abuse and misuse. 

  • Creates an interagency task force to make recommendations regarding best practices to identify, prevent, and mitigate the effects of trauma on infants, children, youth, and their families.

 

Treatment and Recovery

  • Allows physicians who have recently graduated in good standing from medical schools to prescribe medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

  • Authorizes a grant program from FY19-FY23 to support development of curriculum that will help healthcare practitioners obtain a waiver to prescribe MAT.

  • Codifies the ability of qualified physicians to prescribe MAT for up to 275 patients if the practitioner meets certain requirements. 

  • Authorizes a grant program from FY19 – FY23 through SAMHSA for entities to establish or operate comprehensive opioid recovery centers that serve as a resource for the community.

  • Requires HHS to issue best practices for emergency treatment of known or suspected drug overdose, use of recovery coaches after a non-fatal overdose, coordination and continuation of care, and treatment after an overdose and provision of overdose reversal medication as appropriate.

  • Requires HHS to provide technical assistance to hospitals and other acute care settings on alternatives to opioids for pain management and authorizes a grant program to support hospitals and other acute care settings that manage pain with alternatives to opioids. 

Some of these policy measures were also recommended in the ADHS’ set of federal policy recommendations in their 2017 report.  Sadly, nothing in here directs HHS to drop its policy of not funding syringe access but all in all this Senate bill looks like it’s pretty good public health policy.  Nice to see.

Will Humble Family Planning, Federal Budget, Federal Public Health Bud, Wills Blog

Call to Action: Labor HHS Education Bill Cuts to Family Planning

Call to Action: Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill

For the first time in more than 20 years, Congress is on track to pass a Labor-HHS-Education spending bill before the end of the fiscal year. Last week, the House agreed to move to conference with the Senate to work out the differences between each chamber’s version of the  bill. The bills contains a number of bad funding cuts.

The House version eliminates funding for the Title X family planning program and the HHS Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. I can’t tell whether the Senate version does the same or not.  The House bill also cuts all funding for the CDC’s Climate and Health program and once again fails to fund CDC research into firearm morbidity and mortality prevention. The bill also weakens the Affordable Care Act by blocking funds for implementing the law. 

Congress only has a few legislative days left to finalize the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill before the end of the fiscal year. If they don’t pass something they’ll probably pass a continuing resolution to keep key public health agencies operating (actually- not a bad outcome honestly). 

Now is the time to Speak for Public Health! You can use this link to Contact your members of Congress and ask them to support robust funding for key public health agencies and programs, and urge them to reject any controversial policy riders that would threaten public health.

Will Humble Climate Change, Wills Blog

EPA Proposing Fuel Efficiency Standard Rollback

The EPA & National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are proposing a roll back of the existing vehicle fleet fuel efficiency standards, which require automakers to gradually increase the average fuel efficiency of their new fleets.  

Under the existing regulations, new cars, trucks, and SUVs fleets will need to average about 50 miles per gallon by 2025. The new EPA & NTHSA proposed rule will stop the progression of standards in 2021.  Rather that requiring a fleet average of 50 mpg by 2025, the new standard will stop at 38 mpg.  Last year, the average fleet fuel efficiency was about 25 mpg.  The current average fuel efficiency of all vehicles on the road is about 21 mpg.

Fuel efficiency standards are an important driver that pushes vehicle manufacturers to discover new ways of improving fuel efficiency and are an important strategy toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The transportation sector is the largest contributor to atmospheric CO2 emissions.

You can submit comments directly to the EPA and NTHSA at this web portal (it’s Docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0283).  The deadline to comment is October 23, 2018. There are only 138 comments in the system so far.  I have this on my to-do list.  Hopefully some of our members will weigh in as well

Will Humble Climate Change, Wills Blog

EPA Proposing Looser Methane Leak Regulations

The USEPA has proposed a new rule that will relax the regulation of methane emissions at oil and gas facilities.  Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas.  A mole of CH4 emitted today lasts about 10 years  in the atmosphere on average, which is much less time than CO2.  But, because CH4 absorbs much more energy than CO2 (CH4 is 30 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2) it has an outsize impact on climate change (but for a shorter time period).  

The plan announced today by EPA will roll back key provisions of the current methane regulations.  The new proposal reduces the frequency of emissions monitoring at oil and natural gas wells from twice a year to once a year or even every other year.  Facilities that compress gas for transport through pipelines will have their monitoring frequencies cut in half from 4 times a year to just twice.  It will also extend the time that companies will have to repair leaks of this potent greenhouse gas from 30 days to 60 days.  Here’s the proposal summary: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-09/documents/frnoilgasreconsideration2060-at54nprm20180910.pdf

At least it won’t let companies completely off the hook, but then that’s looking through rose-colored glasses I guess.

This new rollback hasn’t been published in the UA Administrative Register yet, and comments are not yet open.  The 60-day comment period will begin once it’s published in the Register.  The Docket ID number will be EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0483 with comments at www.regulations.gov.

Will Humble Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance, Medicaid, Public Health Law, Wills Blog

Health Insurance for People w Pre-existing Conditions in Jeopardy Again

A main driver for passing and implementing the Affordable Care Act was to ensure that people with pre-existing health conditions could buy health insurance.  Prior to the ACA- people with pre-existing medical conditions like diabetes faced real challenges getting health insurance.

Indeed, one of the most consistently popular parts of the ACA are the provisions that help people get  coverage regardless of health status.  The ACA prevents health insurance companies from denying someone a policy because they have a preexisting condition (called the “guaranteed issue” requirement), refusing to cover services that people need to treat a pre-existing condition (called “preexisting condition exclusions”), or charging a higher premium based on a person’s health status (called the “community rating” provision).   

You can think of pre-existing conditions exclusions, guarantee issue, and community rating as the three legs of the ACA stool.  Despite these largely popular provisions, there are people that want to knock over the stool.  Back in February, 20 states (including Arizona) filed a lawsuit in Texas federal court seeking to invalidate the 3 legs of the stool: preexisting condition exclusions, community rating, and guaranteed issue.

This most recent legal attack argues that the removal of the individual mandate penalty by the most recent federal tax cut legislation makes the ACA unconstitutional (the US Supreme Court upheld the ACA several years ago, in part, because the tax penalty provision provided a statutory hook for the ACA to rest on).  The lawsuit argues that because the mandate is an essential feature of the ACA, the rest of the law must be struck down too.  If the lawsuit eventually succeeds these central provisions of the ACA would go away and an estimated 17 million people could become uninsured again.

During the Obama Administration, the federal government defended the ACA from lawsuits like these.  Those days are over.  A couple of months ago, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that they agree with the plaintiff States that the ACA’s individual mandate is unconstitutional. The administration urged the court to strike down the law’s guaranteed issue, preexisting condition exclusion, and community rating provisions.

Prior to the ACA, standards to protect people with preexisting conditions were primarily determined at the state level.  Most states including AZ had very limited protections. Before the ACA, many insurers maintained lists of up to 400 different conditions that disqualified applicants from insurance or resulted in higher premiums.  35% of people who tried to buy insurance on their own were either turned down by an insurer, charged a higher premium, or had a benefit excluded from coverage because of their preexisting health problem.

If the Federal courts (ultimately the US Supreme Court probably) rule in favor of the plaintiffs, States could still play as a regulator of insurance, as they could enact and enforce their own laws to protect residents from discrimination due to preexisting conditions.  In fact, several states already have their own laws to incorporate some or all of the ACA’s protections (Arizona does not). 

Oral arguments have been scheduled for next week in the Texas lawsuit. Arguments are scheduled to take place next Monday before Judge Reed O’Connor.  Whatever the Federal TX Court rules, the result will likely be appealed to the UA Appellate Court and eventually probably the US Supreme Court.

Will Humble Public Health, Wills Blog

Center for Public Health Law & Policy

 

The Center for Public Health Law and Policy  is the cornerstone of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law’s nationally-ranked health law program. The Center brings together students, leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to address critical issues in law, ethics, policy, and the public’s health. The Center explores a wide range of issues, including national health care reform, communicable disease control, human subject research protection, emergency legal preparedness, obesity and injury prevention, health information privacy, and vaccination law and policy.

The Center for Public Health Law and Policy is also the home to the Western Region Office of the national Network for Public Health Law, funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Led by Professor James G. Hodge, Jr., the Western Region Office provides technical assistance and other vital resources to public health practitioners, officials, attorneys, and advocates across 11 Western states and nationally. Since its inception in September of 2010, the Western Region Office has fulfilled nearly 3000 requests nationally, over 1000 of which directly aided requesters in the office’s home state of Arizona.

This fall the Network for Public Health Law is organizing the 2018 Public Health Law Conference, to be held October 4-6, in Phoenix, AZ. For more information, please visit: https://www.networkforphl.org/2018_conference/phlc18.

Will Humble Affordable Care Act, Behavioral Health, Federal Budget, Health Insurance, Medicaid, Wills Blog

State Action to Stem Rising Prescription Drug Costs

By Association for State and Territorial Health Officials Staff

The high cost of prescription drugs is a persistent problem in the United States, with about 10 percent of overall health spending attributed to prescription drugs. In recent years, there has been increased interest among states to address the rising cost of prescription drugs. Just this year, 24 states passed 37 bills to stem rising drug costs. In total, state legislatures have introduced 160 bills targeting prescription drug costs in 2018.

States have pursued a wide range of strategies to tackle the high cost of prescription drugs, including policies that address drug price transparency, rate setting requirements to prevent price gouging, drug importation programs, generic drugs companies, and pharmacy benefit manager transparency.

 

Drug Price Transparency

Controlling healthcare costs is one of the three elements of the Triple Aim, along with improving population health and patient care experience. As a first step toward controlling costs, states are seeking more price transparency requirements from drug manufacturers. In 2018, six states passed legislation addressing drug price transparency. Many of these laws adopt more stringent transparency policies requiring drug manufacturers to justify price increases over certain thresholds. For example, Connecticut requires drug manufacturers to justify price increases for specific drugs if the price increases by 20 percent or more in a year or 50 percent over three years.

 

Price-Gouging and Rate Setting Requirements

Anti-price gouging and rate setting requirements use information collected from transparency laws to allow states to impose penalties for excessive drug price increases. Currently, Maryland is the only state with an anti-price gouging law. The policy allows the state Medicaid agency to notify the state’s office of the attorney general when an essential off-patent brand name drug or generic medication has an excessive price increase.

Maryland’s attorney general can then request justification from manufacturers for the price increase. If the rationale of the price increase is deemed unjustified by “the cost of producing the drug, or the cost of appropriate expansion of access to the drug to promote public health,” the state can impose civil penalties or use other mechanisms to penalize the manufacturer. However, a lawsuit has since been filed in federal court by drug manufacturers asserting violations of Constitutional law as it relates to interstate commerce. To date, twelve other anti-price gouging bills have been introduced in states, although none have been enacted.

 

Drug Importation

Earlier this year, Vermont became the first state to pass a drug importation bill, allowing the state to import wholesale prescription drugs from Canada for use by all state residents. The law requires the designation of a state agency to become a licensed drug wholesaler, or to contract with a licensed drug wholesaler. Several steps remain before Vermont’s program can go into effect, including the state health department receiving federal approval from HHS by July 2019. In addition, although the Utah legislature failed to pass a bill that would have created a program for importing drugs from Canada, the legislature requested that the Utah Department of Health conduct a feasibility study associated with drug importation.

 

Generic Drugs

Recently, Maine passed a law requiring brand name manufacturers to make samples of drugs available to generic drug manufacturers, with the intention of promoting competition by increasing access of information for companies developing lower-cost generic drugs. The law states that, “In order for there to be competition in the prescription drug market, developers of generic drugs and biosimilar biological products must be able to obtain quantities of the reference listed drug or biological product with which the generic drug or biosimilar biological product is intended to compete.”

 

Pharmacy Benefit Managers

Several states have passed bills regarding pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which require increased transparency and disclosure of information on drug rebates and concessions. For example, Nevada passed a law in 2017 requiring PBMs to disclose the amount of rebates received from drugs used to treat diabetes. Connecticut’s drug price transparency law also requires PBMs to provide information on rebates and other price concessions received from drug companies. Mississippi passed a law preventing PBM gag clauses, which stop pharmacists from sharing information with patients on lower-cost drug options.

 

Other State Policies

In Montana, the legislature passed a bill establishing an interagency committee to study state drug pricing and spending trends, which will make recommendations to the state legislature on drug pricing policies in late 2018. In addition, New York implemented an annual cap on drug spending in its Medicaid program. Under the law, if spending projections extend beyond the cap, the state health department must identify the costliest drugs and attempt to negotiate additional rebates with manufacturers. This law also gives the state the authority to develop an independent panel that can penalize manufacturers through various mechanisms.

 

Future Opportunities

Emerging state legislation to address the rising cost of drug prices in demonstrates potential paths forward to address drug prices at the state level. The National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP) has developed model legislation to address drug price transparency, drug importation, rate setting, and pharmacy benefit managers. The NASHP resource includes model legislation for states, bill text from states that have already passed legislation, and relevant briefing documents.

Will Humble Professional Development, Wills Blog

Unique Career Opportunities in Mohave County

For those of you interested in developing and implementing public health policy at the local level- there’s nothing like running a county health department.  Especially in a rural county.  Rural counties offer a unique career experience that allows you to see all facets of public health.  Folks working in rural counties learn about all the various public health programs- providing a unique opportunity to build a career in public health.  Running a smaller rural county health department also positions you well for larger organizations later in your career.

Right now there are a couple of great career building opportunities in Mohave County including the Public Health Director and Director of Environmental Health.  Both are based in Kingman.  These kinds of jobs don’t come open very often, so take a ponder over the Labor Day weekend and think about it.  I’m not spinning this- these really are good career opportunities for ambitious public health professionals that are looking to expand their reach in developing and implementing local public health policy.

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