Policy Matters: A monthly newsletter for Duke Faculty, Students, and Staff from the
Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy
Health Policy Update: June 2020
COVID-19 RESPONSE:
HEALTH POLICY IN ACTION
NATIONAL

Center Director Mark McClellan and former Commissioner of the FDA Scott Gottlieb have published two op-eds in the Wall Street Journal. The first addressed how clinical trials can safely be accelerated for COVID-19 research and development. Read here . The second addresses the need to reinvent health care to beat COVID-19. Read here .

Read more from Mark McClellan from his Duke media briefing on the resurgence of COVID-19 here .

Senior Policy Fellow Susan Dentzer chaired the Virtual Summit on Health System Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic that broadcasted on June 22-25. View the agenda here.   Director Mark McClellan addressed the conference on June 22 and Deputy Director of Policy Mart a Wosińska lead a panel on testing and contact tracing and the implications for health care providers.

Prior to COVID-19, Core Faculty Member Gavin Yamey studied ways to prepare for and quickly shut down potential global outbreaks. Now, he outlines the fundamental elements of pandemic preparedness and provides insights on what’s needed to bring the pandemic under control. Read more from Duke Today here . He also outlines why wearing masks matters in this Time commentary .

Core Faculty Member Nathan Boucher was quoted in an article from The Hill on how nursing homes fail to get COVID-19 under control. He also published a piece i n The Hill on how COVID-19 has highlighted the risks home health workers face.

STATE

Research Director Rob Saunders, Senior Research Assistant Isha Sharma and Research Associate Jonathan Gonzalez-Smith are co-authors on a new article from the New England Journal of Medicine on integrated pain management during COVID-19.
A new   Health Affairs Blog  by Duke-Margolis authors in collaboration with Aledade and Leavitt Partners analyzes proposed changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program in response to COVID-19. The post estimates how these changes may affect ACOs, supporting some changes while modifying others or recommending new changes for CMS to consider in order to stabilize the ACO program, which is poised for to better COVID care beyond the status quo. The work represents a growing coalition of support among many ACO leaders and ACO policy experts for preserving fundamental program incentives instead of pausing the progress that these alternative payment models have made to date.


Marta Wosińska, Deputy Director of Policy, discussed the increasing positivity rate for COVID testing in Arizona with NPR. Listen here .
EVENTS
WEBINAR: VALUE-BASED CARE IN THE COVID-19 ERA

Duke-Margolis and the United States of Care hosted a webinar on how health care organizations are leveraging value-based care to respond to COVID-19 and the policy actions that can support value-based care both during and after the pandemic. Co-hosted by former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt, the event included fireside chats moderated by Mark McClellan with Seema Verma, current CMS Administrator,and Brad Smith, Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Read more in the policy brief .
WEBINAR: COVID-19 MANUFACTURING

Duke-Margolis hosted a webinar to explore strategies and policies to ensure sufficient manufacturing capacity for biologic COVID-19 therapeutics. Discussion addressed efforts to assess capacity, repurpose existing manufacturing capacity, and develop new capacity. Read the issue brief .
WEBINAR: COVID-19 REOPENING

On Tuesday, June 23 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm ET, Duke-Margolis and Alexandria Summit hosted a webinar on the issues, strategies, and policies for reopening the economy and public spaces in an absence of therapeutics and vaccines. 
PUBLICATIONS
Managing Associate Monika Schneider, Research Director Marianne Hamilton Lopez, and Director Mark McClellan are co-authors on an article published in the Journal on Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy on Preclinical Alzheimer Disease Drug Development: Early Considerations Based on Phase 3 Clinical Trials. Read the article here.
A new paper published by Health Affairs , Paying for Value from Costly Medical Technologies: A Framework for Applying Value-Based Payment Reforms, proposes a framework for multiple value-based payment models for drugs and medical devices.  Authors include Research Director Marianne Hamilton Lopez, Policy Fellow Aparna Higgins, Senior Research Assistant Nick Fiore, and Director Mark McClellan.
Our June 10 webinar on Value-Based Care in the COVID-19 Era builds on publications, including a letter co-authored by former CMS administrators on additional steps needed in the pandemic response, a document summarizing challenges faced by providers and a health care resilience program, and an issue brief that explores how organizations were able to leverage value-based payment to respond to the pandemic.
Isha Sharma, Marta Wosińska, Adam Kroetsch, Haley Sullivan, and Mark McClellan are co-authors on a new issue brief that provides an estimate of the demand for mAb drug products (COVID-19 and otherwise), an overview of the manufacturing process for mAbs, and an analysis of manufacturing capacity currently in use to make mAbs for the North American and European markets. 
Rachel Roiland, Elizabeth Singletary, Rob Saunders, and Susan Dentzer are co-authors on an issue brief on Alternate Payment Models to Support Child Health & Development. Read more here .
NEWS
On June 16, Policy Fellow Aparna Higgins was a panelist at the AHIP Institute discussing value-based payment for medical products and her recently released Health Affairs paper on the framework.
Deputy Director of Policy Marta Wosińska spoke with Spectrum News about how to reopen the country safely. Watch here . She also spoke to The Hill about the changing demographics of COVID-19 infections.
Managing Associate Monika Schneider has participated in multiple conference sessions, including:

  • ISPOR 2020 (panelist) on Identifying and Evidencing the Value of Novel Antibiotics: Are Health Outcomes Enough?
  • DIA Global Annual Meeting 2020 (panelist and session chair) on Considerations for Long-Term Outcomes Data Collection for Value-Based Payment Arrangements and Subscription Models to Incentive Antimicrobial Innovation
  • Webinar from Sanguine Bioscience (moderator) to explore how we can do to be better prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to disease outbreaks.