The Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Children's Health Coverage.

BACKGROUND: Prior research of the impacts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on children's health coverage has been largely descriptive and focused on the Medicaid expansions. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the causal impacts of the PPACA Medicaid expansions and of the PPACA as a whole on children's health coverage through 2016. RESEARCH DESIGN: We utilized quasiexperimental difference in differences designs to estimate the Medicaid expansion and overall PPACA effects. The first model compared coverage changes between Medicaid expanding and nonexpanding states by household income level. The second model identified the overall PPACA effects by estimating coverage changes across differences in pre-PPACA area-level uninsured rates in expanding states for which the identifying assumptions were valid. We used data from the American Community Survey for years 2011 through 2016 for 3,630,988 children aged 0-18 years living in the 50 states and District of Columbia. RESULTS: The PPACA Medicaid expansions led to gains in public coverage for children at ≤405% federal poverty line especially in 2015-2016. Gains were largest for children at 138%-255% federal poverty line (~4 percentage-point increase in 2016). These gains however were mostly due to switching from private to public coverage (ie, crowd-out effects). As a whole however, the PPACA reduced children's uninsured rate in Medicaid-expanding states by about 3 percentage-points in 2016. CONCLUSIONS: The PPACA resulted in a meaningful decline in children's uninsured rate in Medicaid-expanding states. PPACA provisions targeting private coverage take-up offset crowd-out effects of the Medicaid expansions resulting in lower children's uninsured rates.

The impact of the affordable care Act (ACA) on favorable risk selection and Beneficiaries' health status in Medicare advantage: a preliminary assessment.

BACKGROUND: In response to increasing fiscal pressures, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) sought to reduce Medicare Advantage plan expenses by restructuring the bidding and payment processes. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of the ACA's payment freeze and restructuring of the bidding and payment processes on favorable risk selection in Medicare Advantage plan enrollment (objective 1) and changes in the health status of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans over time (objective 2). METHODS: We used the Medicare Health Outcome Survey baseline data (2007→2013) for analyses of the first objective (7 cohorts, 1.7 million beneficiaries) and the linked baseline and follow-up data (2007-2009→2011-2013) for analyses of the second objective (5 cohorts, 0.5 million beneficiaries). To examine favorable risk selection we used the following outcomes: self-rated health, falls, balance problems, falls management, frailty, and morbidity. To examine changes in beneficiary health status over time, we examined changes (over time) in these same outcomes. The focal independent variable is the policy implementation measure, which is time dependent and measures the accumulation of changes to Medicare Advantage payment policies resulting from the ACA. Multiple regression models were developed to examine the relationship between ACA implementation and outcomes of interest. RESULTS: In terms of favorable selection, individuals enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans post-ACA have, on average, better self-rated health (b = 0.003, p < 0.01), lower odds of falls (AOR = 0.981, p < 0.001), higher odds of falls management (AOR = 1.040, p < 0.001), lower frailty risks (IRR = 0.983, p < 0.001), and lower risks of comorbidities (IRR = 0.989, p < 0.001). In terms of health status changes over time, the results indicate that in the post-ACA period, beneficiaries reported better self-rated health (b = 0.028, p < 0.001), lower odds of falls (AOR = 0.965, p < 0.001), lower odds of balance problems (AOR = 0.958, p < 0.001), lower odds of falls management (AOR = 0.981, p < 0.05), lower frailty risks (IRR = 0.944, p < 0.001), and lower risks of comorbidity (IRR = 0.986, p < 0.001) at follow up compared to the same risks at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that as the Medicare Advantage payment policies in the ACA were being implemented, plans may have engaged in favorable selection activities, yet beneficiaries exhibited more favorable health outcomes.

Improvements in newborn care and newborn resuscitation following a quality improvement program at scale: results from a before and after study in Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: Every year, more than a million of the world's newborns die on their first day of life; as many as two-thirds of these deaths could be saved with essential care at birth and the early newborn period. Simple interventions to improve the quality of essential newborn care in health facilities - for example, improving steps to help newborns breathe at birth - have demonstrated up to 47% reduction in newborn mortality in health facilities in Tanzania. We conducted an evaluation of the effects of a large-scale maternal-newborn quality improvement intervention in Tanzania that assessed the quality of provision of essential newborn care and newborn resuscitation. METHODS: Cross-sectional health facility surveys were conducted pre-intervention (2010) and post intervention (2012) in 52 health facilities in the program implementation area. Essential newborn care provided by health care providers immediately following birth was observed for 489 newborns in 2010 and 560 in 2012; actual management of newborns with trouble breathing were observed in 2010 (n = 18) and 2012 (n = 40). Assessments of health worker knowledge were conducted with case studies (2010, n = 206; 2012, n = 217) and a simulated resuscitation using a newborn mannequin (2010, n = 299; 2012, n = 213). Facility audits assessed facility readiness for essential newborn care. RESULTS: Index scores for quality of observed essential newborn care showed significant overall improvement following the quality-of-care intervention, from 39% to 73% (p <0.0001). Health worker knowledge using a case study significantly improved as well, from 23% to 41% (p <0.0001) but skills in resuscitation using a newborn mannequin were persistently low. Availability of essential newborn care supplies, which was high at baseline in the regional hospitals, improved at the lower-level health facilities. CONCLUSIONS: Within two years, the quality improvement program was successful in raising the quality of essential newborn care services in the program facilities. Some gaps in newborn care were persistent, notably practical skills in newborn resuscitation. Continued investment in life-saving improvements to newborn care through the health services is a priority for reduction of newborn mortality in Tanzania.

Understanding the trends, and drivers of emigration, migration intention and non-migration of health workers from low-income and middle-income countries: protocol for a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: The WHO estimates a shortage of 18 million health workers (HWs) by 2030, primarily in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). The perennial out-migration of HWs from LMICs, often to higher-income countries, further exacerbates the shortage. We propose a systematic review to understand the determinants of HWs out-migration, intention to migrate and non-migration from LMICs. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This protocol was designed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols guideline for the development and reporting of systematic review protocols. We will include English and French language primary studies (quantitative or qualitative) focused on any category of HWs; from any LMICs; assessed migration or intention to migrate; and reported any determinant of migration. A three-step search strategy that involves a search of one electronic database to refine the preliminary strategy, a full search of all included databases and reference list search of included full-text papers for additional articles will be employed. We will search Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Global Health and Web of Science from inception to August 2022. The retrieved titles will be imported to EndNote and deduplicated. Two reviewers will independently screen all titles and abstract for eligibility using Rayyan. Risk of bias of the individual studies will be determined using the National Institute of Health study quality assessment tools for quantitative studies and the 10-item Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklists for qualitative studies. The results will be presented in the form of narrative synthesis using a descriptive approach ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: We will not seek ethical approval from an institutional review board, as this is a systematic review. At completion, we will submit the report of this review to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. Key findings will be presented at local and international conferences. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022334283.

Organizational scope of practice: assessing the primary care and public health activities of health centers and health departments in Iowa.

The objective was to understand how Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and local health departments (LHDs) address their shared mission of improving population health by determining the scope of primary care and public health activities each provides in their community. A brief mail survey was designed and fielded among executive directors at all 14 FQHCs in Iowa, and 13 LHDs in Iowa representing counties with and without an FQHC. This survey contained a mixture of questions adapted from previously validated primary care and public health survey instruments. Using survey responses, each FQHC and LHD was given 2 scores (each ranging from 0-100) measuring the extent of their primary care and public health activities, respectively. The overall response rate was 85.2%; the response rate was 78.6% within FQHCs and 91.7% within LHDs. Overall, FQHCs had higher scores (73.8%) compared to LHDs (27.3%) on total primary care services, while both LHDs (79.3%) and FQHCs (70.9%) performed particularly well on public health services. FQHCs and LHDs in Iowa address a variety of public health and primary care issues, including but not limited to screening for chronic diseases, nutrition counseling, immunizations, and behavioral health. However, FQHCs provide a higher amount of primary care services and nearly as many public health services when compared to LHDs. In a value-based health care delivery system, integrating to improve population health is a wise strategy to maximize efficiency, but this will require maximizing coordination and minimizing duplication of services across different types of safety net providers.

Observation Rates At Veterans' Hospitals More Than Doubled During 2005-13, Similar To Medicare Trends.

When neither inpatient admission nor prompt discharge is clearly indicated for a patient in the emergency department, physicians place the patient under observation in a hospital for diagnosis and treatment. The increasing prevalence of observation stays at hospitals reimbursed by Medicare is receiving considerable attention, but the prevalence remains unexplored in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) hospitals, which are subject to different payment policies. Using VHA data for fiscal years 2005-13, we identified trends and variations in observation rates across twenty-one Veteran Integrated Service Networks and 128 VHA hospitals nationwide. We found that observation rates across VHA hospitals more than doubled, from 6.5 percent to 13.8 percent, and that there was substantial variation across both Veteran Integrated Service Networks and hospitals. The most prevalent diagnoses accounted for an increasing share of observation stays over time. Despite different incentives within the VHA and Medicare, rates of observation have increased over time for both populations.