It’s Day 2 of the J.P. Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference at its finest – looking closely at healthcare inequities, strategic business shifts and killer robots, all in the same day! (Yes, we did say killer robots and it’s your reward for reading all the way to the end of this article).
Continue Reading Day 2 Notes for the 39th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, 2021
The Big Cost; Cancer is the Answer; and SDOH Evolves
The Big Cost: You’re okay today, and then tomorrow you’re not. Life has changed and there’s a new reality. Whether it’s an acute event – an accident, a heart attack, a bad diagnosis (I’m sorry, you’ve got….) – or the beginning of what will be a life changing chronic condition, we each day are living our lives, making unconscious calculations about our risks and our choices that can lead to these risks. The easier ones are things like “do I want to wear that seatbelt,” “what will eating that (fill in your favorite comfort food) do to me,” or “I know I need to exercise, but…”
The more interesting risk choices – and that’s what we’re talking about, the fact that every day each and every one of us, and every business that provides healthcare insurance to its employees, is making choices as to what risks are tolerable, foreseeable or not acceptable – are those that are not clearly foreseeable but definitely will have consequences in the foreseeable future. For example, if you’re an employer or an insurer, you know that a significant portion of your employees or members have either genetic disposition to certain diseases or are more likely to suffer from certain diseases due to social determinants of health. We also wonder at the development of new drugs that can cure or successfully treat conditions that never before could be addressed successfully, like childhood leukemia, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, spinal muscular atrophy or inherited retinal dystrophy – many of which wonder drugs also carry eye-watering prices in the millions per treatment. Families can’t afford those costs, nor can individual employers.
Continue Reading Day 2 Notes at the 2020 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
On April 4, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) finalized guidance and policies for the Medicare Advantage program that will expand the supplemental benefits afforded to beneficiaries to include items and services that address certain “social determinants of health” (“SDOH”). SDOH refers to a wide range of factors and conditions that are known to have an impact on healthcare, ranging from socioeconomic status, education and employment, to one’s physical environment and access to healthcare. Previously, CMS did not allow an item or service to be eligible as a supplemental benefit if the primary purpose was for daily maintenance. CMS’ reinterpretation of the statute to expand the scope of the primarily health-related supplemental benefit standard is an important step in encouraging value-based care.
Continue Reading Medicare Advantage to Address Social Determinants of Health: An Important Step for Value-Based Care