ASPE Issue Brief

It is well known that in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States much of the devastation was concentrated in nursing homes. In addition to the staggering death toll, isolation and suffering from COVID-19 among nursing home residents, the pandemic introduced new challenges for nursing home staff and exacerbated ongoing challenges.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) enhances the health and well-being of all Americans by advancing equity, addressing social determinants of health, and supporting underserved communities.

This document presents the abstract of this paper, as published in JAMA Network Open. The full text of the article is available at: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2796179 Related Products:

High prescription drug costs are a leading concern among Americans. Americans pay higher prices for prescription drugs than any other country in the world, with prescription drug prices in the U.S. more than 2.5 times as high as those in other similar high-income nations.

This project tracked resident and facility factors associated with high risk of live discharges from nursing facilities.

People can be discharged from nursing homes for many reasons. Discharges may be a positive outcome and at an individual’s choice. In other cases, discharges may be at the direction of the facility and against the will of the resident. There are strict rules about when involuntary facility-initiated discharges (FIDs) are allowed.

This brief introduces the HHS Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration, which advances the President’s Strategy to Address our National Mental Health Crisis. It provides a general overview of the approach HHS is taking to drive toward integrated care within the three pillars of the President’s Strategy and highlights selected programs and policy actions that will get us there.

The COVID-19 pandemic had wide-ranging impacts on health care delivery, particularly services that require in-person interactions. For patients needing access to medications to treat pain or certain substance use disorders, the COVID-19 pandemic presented particular challenges for continuity of treatment.

Payers across the health care spectrum have begun transitioning from paying for quantity toward paying for quality. These value-based payment (VBP) programs vary in scope and focus, but generally share the goals of improving cost-savings and linking payments to value rather than volume.

This report provides current HHS projections of the number of individuals predicted to lose Medicaid coverage at the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) due to a change in eligibility or due to administrative churning.