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Webinar

Webinar Replay: Supporting the Behavioral Health Workforce During the COVID-19 Response: Strategies for Providers to Sustain and Strengthen the Behavioral Health System

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This webinar was held on May 18, 2020.

Even as behavioral health providers work tirelessly to respond to COVID-19, the most forward-looking organizations also recognize that the pandemic has laid bare the need to develop a wide variety of short- and long-term solutions to ongoing and emergent needs. The most pressing of these needs concern strategies to support and strengthen the behavioral health system workforce.

During this webinar, HMA experts showed how leading behavioral health providers are using new regulatory flexibilities, emerging staffing models, and new delivery formats to develop and implement organizational changes and innovations that sustain workforce excellence.

Learning Objectives:

  • Hear how behavioral health providers around the country are supporting their workforce and continuing to meet ongoing and emergent behavioral health needs.
  • Learn how collaborative efforts among states and providers can lead to meaningful changes in rules, roles, tools, and approaches to delivering behavioral healthcare.
  • Obtain cross-cutting strategies for management and leadership during a crisis.
  • Find out how to ensure organizational structures are in place to help staff adjust to change, foster resilience, and provide bereavement support when appropriate.
  • Understand the available resources and emerging practices for workforce support, including training, technology, and strategies for enhancing the ability of the behavioral health workforce to meet the needs of special populations.

HMA Speakers

Barry Jacobs, PsyD, Principal, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Gina Lasky, PsyD, Principal, Denver, Colorado
Shannon Mong, PsyD, Principal, San Francisco, California
Lori Raney, MD, Principal, Denver, Colorado
Meggan Schilkie, MBA, Managing Principal, New York
Tim Sheehan, MSW, Principal, Chicago, Illinois

Brief & Report

HMA report examines COVID-19 toll on Pennsylvania hospitals

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A report completed by HMA colleagues estimated the potential financial impact on hospitals and health systems of the current COVID-19 pandemic in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The analysis, completed in mid-April, concluded that Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems are likely to experience losses in excess of $7 billion for the final 10 months of 2020 after accounting for federal disaster relief payments, based on emergency relief legislation that had been passed at the time. HMA Principal Tom Marks and Senior Consultant Mary Goddeeris completed the report, Analysis of the Financial Impact of COVID-19 on Pennsylvania Hospitals, on behalf of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP). HMA conducted interviews and collected data from finance officials at a sample of health systems and projected the findings across the population of Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems. The interviews and analysis were completed in mid-April, well before the full effect of the pandemic could be measured. Financial leaders consistently reported enormous declines in patient service from mid-March to mid-April due to the cancellation and deferral of non-emergency services. While there are varying assumptions about the return of pre-pandemic patient service volumes, all leaders projected a bleak forecast for the second quarter and continued negative impact of service disruption for the rest of 2020.

Learn more about HMA’s multi-faceted COVID-19 response.

Brief & Report

HMA experts publish 50-state Medicaid pharmacy study with Kaiser Family Foundation

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In conjunction with the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a team of HMA experts have published survey results and analysis examining administration of the Medicaid pharmacy benefit. HMA contributing colleagues were Kathleen Gifford, Anne Winter and Linda Wiant. Rachel Dolan, Marina Tian, and Rachel Garfield from KFF also contributed.

The report, How State Medicaid Programs are Managing Prescription Drug Costs: Results from a State Medicaid Pharmacy Survey for State Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020, summarized the survey conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The survey outlines Medicaid pharmacy policy areas and key issues to watch based on feedback from the states in several categories including pharmacy benefit administration, cost-containment and utilization controls, payment and rebates, 340B management and long-term priorities.

Blog

50-State Survey of Medicaid Pharmacy Directors

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This week, our In Focus section reviews key takeaways from the report, How State Medicaid Programs are Managing Prescription Drug Costs: Results from a State Medicaid Pharmacy Survey for State Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020, prepared by Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and Health Management Associates (HMA). The report was written by HMA Managing Principal Anne Winter and Principals Kathleen Gifford and Linda Wiant with Rachel Dolan, Marina Tian, and Rachel Garfield from KFF.

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Blog

HMA examines Medicare-Medicaid integration: low FBDE enrollment in integrated programs

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This week, our In Focus section reviews an issue brief written by HMA consultants examining Medicare-Medicaid integration. In 2019, 7.7 million people in the United States were eligible to receive access to full benefits under Medicare and individual state Medicaid programs. This group of people is known as the Full Benefit Dual Eligible (FBDE) population. While FBDE enrollment in integrated programs nearly quadrupled over the past five years, the number of people enrolled in an integrated program never rose above one in 10 FBDE people.

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Blog

Examining key considerations for implementing group prenatal care

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A team of HMA consultants have authored a peer-reviewed journal article drawing on data from the recently completed five-year evaluation of the Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns II Initiative to discuss key considerations for implementing a group prenatal care model, including barriers to implementation and sustainability as well as strategies for overcoming barriers and sustaining the model.

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Webinar

Webinar Replay: Health Equity and Enlightened Leadership in the Shadows of COVID-19: A Conversation with Jay Bhatt, D.O.

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This webinar was held on April 30, 2020.

True health system innovation and transformation requires the type of enlightened leadership that understands the nature and role of health equity and social justice. That’s especially true in the shadows of COVID-19, when disparities are heightened, and a strong vision is needed to progress toward the elimination of health inequities.

During this webinar, Jay Bhatt, D.O., a practicing internist and past chief medical officer of the American Hospital Association, engaged in a spirited conversation with HMA health system transformation and leadership expert Jeffrey Ring about the role of strong leadership in health system transformation and healthcare justice.

 Learning Objectives

  • Explore the concept of health equity, including a look at how inequities are heightened in the era of COVID-19.
  • Understand the concept of enlightened leadership and its role in achieving optimal healthcare delivery.
  • Gain insight into how the fallout from COVID-19 will impact our understanding of healthcare justice.

Speakers

Jay Bhatt, D.O., practicing internist; Past SVP, and Chief Medical Officer, American Hospital Association; Past President, Health Research and Educational Trust
Jeffrey Ring, PhD, Principal and Health Psychologist, Health Management Associates

Blog

COVID-19 education, contact tracing, and care connections: community health workers key to sustainable local public health response

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As reported by the New York Times (An Army of Virus Tracers Takes Shape in Massachusetts, April 17), Massachusetts has hired 1,000 public health contact tracers to speed containment of COVID-19 during its surge in infections. Contact tracers are reaching out to those who have tested positive, providing information, and talking them through their recent movements and connections, using cell phones and triangulation data. They then, in turn, reach out to inform and educate those contacts.

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Blog

Dual eligible financial alignment demonstration 2020 enrollment update

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This week, our In Focus section reviews publicly available data on enrollment in capitated financial and administrative alignment demonstrations (“Duals Demonstrations”) for beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid (duals) in nine states: California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Texas. Each of these states has begun either voluntary or passive enrollment of duals into fully integrated plans providing both Medicaid and Medicare benefits (“Medicare-Medicaid Plans,” or “MMPs”) under three-way contracts between the state, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the MMP. As of February 2020, approximately 371, 200 duals were enrolled in an MMP. Enrollment fell 1.2 percent from February of the previous year.

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