Health Policy Journal Club | #HPJC

Critically evaluate #HealthPolicy papers | 1st Tuesday | Moderators: @AmarKelkar @PKoiralaMDPhD @yourlocalIDdoc @AnkitAgarwalMD @BenjaminMeyerMD | #HPJC

[Health Policy Journal Club | #HPJC @HPJournalClub]

We won't be holding @HPJournalClub on Tuesday, November 3 because of the US General Election, but we hope to do something special for that! Stay tuned and please keep on responding to the #MedicareForAll discussion from last night! #HPJC

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

Very glad to share this #OpEd coauthored with @PayalDesaiMD & @jkw4444, supporting the Sickle Cell Disease Comprehensive Care Act (S. 3389 / H.R. 6216), published in @statnews today!

A brief🧵1/
@ASH_hematology @RepDannyDavis @SenBooker #ConquerSCD #HemeTwitter #MedTwitter #HPJC

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

These bills would fund a @MedicaidGov demonstration project to show the cost-effectiveness of #SCD treatment centers & pairs with the “Sickle Cell Disease and Other Heritable Blood Disorders Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment Act of 2018” to direct resources. 2/

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

Commitments to sickle cell disease research are finally generating progress in epidemiology & therapeutics, but lack a mechanism to deliver these therapies & provide necessary preventative care for this debilitating disease! #ConquerSCD @ASH_hematology 3/
https://t.co/wyYoEWonvy

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

The bill was introduced in the House by @RepDannyDavis & Senate by @SenBooker with bipartisan cosponsorship from 5 Senators & 17 Representatives! However, there’s only a few days in the term to get this bill passed!

5/ @ASH_hematology #ConquerSCD #Fight4Hematology #HemeTwitter

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

This is an issue of #healthequity & #systemicracism with dire need! The average lifespan of patients with #SCD even now is ~40-45 years, ~1/2 that of the general US population!
6/ @ASH_hematology @DrPowerHays @DocTeeLee #ConquerSCD #HemeTwitter #MedTwitter https://t.co/y3l4vhOBJv

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

In Massachusetts, I’m calling on @SenWarren, @SenMarkey, & @RepStephenLynch to sign on and vocally support this the Sickle Cell Disease Comprehensive Care Act (S. 3389 / H.R. 6216)! 9/ @RepRichardNeal @RepMcGovern @RepLoriTrahan @RepAuchincloss @RepKClark @RepMoulton @RepPressley

[Payal Desai, MD @PayalDesaiMD]

@amarkelkar @SenWarren @SenMarkey @RepStephenLynch @RepRichardNeal @RepMcGovern @RepLoriTrahan @RepAuchincloss @RepKClark @RepMoulton @RepPressley @ASH_hematology @jkw4444 @SCDFoundation @ConquerSCD @FundSickleCell @SCCConsortium @sicklecell_news @GlobalSCDN @statnews In North Carolina I'm calling on @RepAdams @RepDavidEPrice @RepKManning @RepTedBudd @RepCawthorn @RepDavidRouzer @virginiafoxx @SenatorBurr and @SenThomTillis Please help #ConquerSCD and support the Sickle Cell Disease Comprehensive Care Act (S. 3389/HR 6216)

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

Demonstrating with data what many physicians felt in practice: MIPS doesn’t accurately identify “quality”.

This shouldn’t be a death knell for the principle of incentivizing “value” but speaks to the point that we haven’t gotten to the point where we have defined what we value.

[Paula Chatterjee @ChatterjeePaula]

When we distribute health care $ based on how much health care is used, we bias resource allocation away from people who experience barriers to care.

In @JAMANetworkOpen, @wschpero & I look at how this bias manifests in 1 of the largest safety-net hospital subsidy programs.

[William Schpero @wschpero]

Medicare and Medicaid allocate ~ $24 billion in subsidies to safety-net hospitals each year.

In a paper out today in @JAMANetworkOpen, @ChatterjeePaula and I show these subsidies are biased against communities of color.

🧵⬇️

1/N

https://t.co/vdYBFpgB9f

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

Great work by @wschpero and @ChatterjeePaula to uncover and clearly explain the inequity in @CMSGov safety-net hospital subsidies and identify the policy problem (using health care utilization as a proxy for community need for subsidy allocation) that should be changed. #HPJC

[Jack Resneck MD @JackResneckMD]

Thanks to House @EnergyCommerce for chance to testify on behalf of @AmerMedicalAssn and the profession of medicine on the dangerous chaos patients & physicians facing in many states after Roe reversal. We oppose gov intrusion into exam rooms and criminalization of medical care.

[José Díaz-Balart Reports @JDBalartMSNBC]

“We need the politicians to stay out of our exam rooms,” says @TaniMalhotraMD

@LindseyReiser
@MSNBC

[Health Policy Journal Club | #HPJC @HPJournalClub]

@DevikaDasMD @amarkelkar @HOJournalClub We’re listening and thinking about when we could host this discussion! If you or someone you can think of would like to join and serve as a subject matter expert, let us know! @YourlocalIDdoc @PKoiralaMDPhD @AnkitAgarwalMD @BenjaminMeyerMD

[Devika Das, MD, MSHQS, FASCO @DevikaDasMD]

https://t.co/kwnyi1e7cg
This should make for an interesting Health Policy journal club discussion...
@amarkelkar @HOJournalClub #OncMedEd

[Health Policy Journal Club | #HPJC @HPJournalClub]

@DevikaDasMD @amarkelkar @HOJournalClub We’re listening and thinking about when we could host this discussion! If you or someone you can think of would like to join and serve as a subject matter expert, let us know! @YourlocalIDdoc @PKoiralaMDPhD @AnkitAgarwalMD @BenjaminMeyerMD

[Aaron Mitchell @TheWonkologist]

Whether a drug achieves a meaningful benefit to patients (at an acceptable price) is a higher, and more important, bar than for FDA approval. If CMS can succeed in setting such a higher bar, that’s good. That’s the bar we need industry to be shooting for.

[Sayed Tabatabai, M.D. @TheRealDoctorT]

I am tired of pharma “patient access” programs.

If you care so much about patient access then stop pricing these meds like they’re rent payments, or cars, or houses.

[Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP @amarkelkar]

Updated @AmerMedicalAssn study on competition in health insurance markets is concerning:⬆️consolidation &⬇️choice for patients, particularly in AL, MI, LA, SC, HI, KY, AK, IL, ND, & OK! This⬆️personal insurance costs (even though physician payments⬇️) & limits therapeutic choice!