Health Affairs最新文献

With Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment surpassing 50 percent of Medicare beneficiaries, accurate risk-adjusted plan payment rates are essential. However, artificially exaggerated coding intensity, where plans seek to enhance measured health risk through the addition or inflation of diagnoses, may threaten payment rate integrity. One factor that may play a role in escalating coding intensity is health risk assessments (HRAs)-typically in-home reviews of enrollees' health status-that enable plans to capture information about their enrollees. In this study, we evaluated the impact of HRAs on Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCC) risk scores, variation in this impact across contracts, and the aggregate payment impact of HRAs, using 2019 MA encounter data. We found that 44.4 percent of MA beneficiaries had at least one HRA. Among those with at least one HRA, HCC scores increased by 12.8 percent, on average, as a result of HRAs. More than one in five enrollees had at least one additional HRA-captured diagnosis, which raised their HCC score. Potential scenarios restricting the risk-score impact of HRAs correspond with $4.5-$12.3 billion in reduced Medicare spending in 2020. Addressing increased coding intensity due to HRAs will improve the value of Medicare spending and ensure appropriate payment in the MA program.

Policy responses to the March 31, 2023, expiration of the Medicaid continuous coverage provision need to consider the difference between self-reported Medicaid participation on government surveys and administrative records of Medicaid enrollment. The difference between the two is known as the "Medicaid undercount." The size of the undercount increased substantially after the continuous coverage provision took effect in March 2020. Using longitudinal data from the Current Population Survey, we examined this change. We found that assuming that all beneficiaries who ever reported enrolling in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency remained enrolled through 2022 (as required by the continuous coverage provision) eliminated the worsening of the undercount. We estimated that nearly half of the 5.9 million people who we projected were likely to become uninsured after the provision expired, or "unwound," already reported that they were uninsured in the 2022 Current Population Survey. This finding suggests that the impact of ending the continuous coverage provision on the estimated uninsurance rate, based on self-reported survey data, may have been smaller than anticipated. It also means that efforts to address Medicaid unwinding should include people who likely remain eligible for Medicaid but believe that they are already uninsured.

Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMAD), a leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality, affect approximately one in seven births in the US. To understand whether extending pregnancy-related Medicaid eligibility from sixty days to twelve months may increase the use of mental health care among low-income postpartum people, we measured the effect of retaining Medicaid as a low-income adult on mental health treatment in the postpartum year, using a "fuzzy" regression discontinuity design and linked all-payer claims data, birth records, and income data from Colorado from the period 2014-19. Relative to enrolling in commercial insurance, retaining postpartum Medicaid enrollment was associated with a 20.5-percentage-point increase in any use of prescription medication or outpatient mental health treatment, a 16.0-percentage-point increase in any use of prescription medication only, and a 7.3-percentage-point increase in any use of outpatient mental health treatment only. Retaining postpartum Medicaid enrollment was also associated with $40.84 lower out-of-pocket spending per outpatient mental health care visit and $3.24 lower spending per prescription medication for anxiety or depression compared with switching to commercial insurance. Findings suggest that extending postpartum Medicaid eligibility may be associated with higher levels of PMAD treatment among the low-income postpartum population.

To characterize co-occurring social determinants of health for clients experiencing perinatal anxiety and depression (perinatal mood and anxiety disorders) or serious mental illness (SMI) in a diverse population receiving prenatal care in a safety-net health system, we conducted a latent class analysis, using data from a social determinants screener in pregnancy for the health system's clients during 2017-20. The sample included clients with positive screens for depression or anxiety or SMI diagnoses. Prenatal clients with a positive screen for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders or SMI comprised 13-30 percent of classes, characterized by more than two co-occurring social determinants (for example, co-occurring socioeconomic and interpersonal factors). The study findings highlight the salience of social determinants among prenatal patients experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorder and SMI and suggest the necessity of consistent screening for both social determinants and perinatal mental health. Policies to address social determinants within and beyond health care settings are critical.

Despite the prevalence of perinatal mental health issues in the United States, gaps in care persist. To address this, perinatal health care settings are asked to focus on patients' mental health by administering standardized screening and, increasingly, by integrating mental health teams in their clinics. Using in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations, I investigated these emerging practices, exploring the experiences of certified nurse-midwives, obstetricians, and mental health clinicians. I found that certified nurse-midwives and obstetricians lack time, resources, and expertise, restricting their ability to address patients' mental health. Integrated mental health clinicians are constrained by the stratified organization of health care and structural deprioritization of mental health. Redesigning perinatal health care and de-siloing mental health training are necessary to increase clinicians' effectiveness and to improve perinatal health outcomes.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a burdensome disorder, affecting 3-4 percent of delivering people in the US, with higher rates seen among Black and Hispanic people. The extent of clinical diagnosis remains unknown. We describe the temporal and racial and ethnic trends in perinatal PTSD diagnoses among commercially insured people with live-birth deliveries during the period 2008-20, using administrative claims from Optum's Clinformatics Data Mart Database. Predicted probabilities from our logistic regression analysis showed a 394 percent increase in perinatal PTSD diagnoses, from 37.7 per 10,000 deliveries in 2008 to 186.3 per 10,000 deliveries in 2020. White people had the highest diagnosis rate at all time points (208.0 per 10,000 deliveries in 2020), followed by Black people, people with unknown race, Hispanic people, and Asian people (188.7, 171.9, 146.9, and 79.8 per 10,000 deliveries in 2020, respectively). The significant growth in perinatal PTSD diagnosis rates may reflect increased awareness, diagnosis, or prevalence of the disorder. However, these rates fall well below the estimated prevalence of PTSD in the perinatal population.

Understanding whether racial and ethnic inequities exist along the postpartum mental health care continuum is vital because inequitable identification of depression can lead to inequitable referral to and receipt of care. We aimed to expand on existing cross-sectional and single-state data documenting potential racial and ethnic disparities in postpartum depression care. Using early (from two to six months) and late (from twelve to fourteen months) postpartum survey data from seven US jurisdictions, we documented patterns of early postpartum depressive symptoms, perinatal mood and anxiety disorder (PMAD) diagnosis, and receipt of postpartum mental health care overall and by racial and ethnic identity. Of 4,542 people who delivered live births in 2020, 11.8 percent reported early postpartum depressive symptoms. Among the sample with these symptoms, only 25.4 percent reported receiving a PMAD diagnosis, and 52.8 percent reported receiving some form of postpartum mental health care. There were no significant differences in diagnosis by race and ethnicity. Respondents identifying as Asian; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; Southwest Asian, Middle Eastern, or North African; Hispanic; and non-Hispanic Black were significantly less likely than non-Hispanic White respondents to receive mental health care, demonstrating stark inequities in the management of postpartum depressive symptoms. Policies mandating and reimbursing universal postpartum depression screening, facilitating connection to care, reducing insurance coverage gaps, and enhancing clinician training in culturally responsive care may promote equitable postpartum mental health care.

We aimed to determine whether antidepressant prescriptions for perinatal mood and anxiety disorder (PMAD) increased after several professional organizations issued clinical recommendations in 2015 and 2016. This serial, cross-sectional, logistic regression analysis evaluated changes in antenatal and postpartum antidepressant prescriptions among commercially insured people who had a live-birth delivery as well as a PMAD diagnosis during the period 2008-20. For people with antenatal PMAD, the odds of an antenatal antidepressant prescription decreased 3 percent annually from 2008 to 2016 and increased by 32 percent in 2017, and the annual rate of change increased 5 percent for 2017-20 compared with 2008-16. For people with postpartum PMAD, the odds of a postpartum antidepressant prescription decreased 2 percent annually from 2008 to 2016 and experienced no significant change in 2017, but the annual rate of change increased 3 percent for 2017-20 compared with 2008-16. The clinical recommendations issued in 2015 and 2016 were associated with increased antidepressant prescriptions for PMAD, particularly for antenatal PMAD. These findings indicate that clinical recommendations represent an effective tool for changing prescribing patterns.