AJMC: Center on Health Equity & Access

Keep up with breaking health policy news under President Trump's Administration. AJMC will be updating this page in real time, so be sure to bookmark! Following last night's House vote in favor of the congressional budget bill, pointing to potential for drastic changes to Medicaid, Giuliana Grossi launched "Health Policy in Flux", a timeline of key news and policy shifts happening since Donald Trump returned to the White House. https://lnkd.in/eN2N4jWR | AJMC - The American Journal of Managed Care

Abortion in 2025: Access, Fertility, and Infant Mortality Updates Abortion access continues to be one of the most contentious issues in US health care, according to?JAMA Health Forum's?editor in chief, Sandro Galea, MD, DrPh, who emphasized the role of academic medical journals in publishing rigorous research while fostering informed discussion on complex and politically charged topics. “This becomes both particularly important—and particularly difficult—when dealing with issues that are of enormous contemporary consequence and of heated public debate,” he wrote in an editorial published in?JAMA Health Forum. The topic of abortion restrictions and related impacts were addressed in multiple articles published by?JAMA?this week, including a pair of investigations Galea highlighted that examined the real-world effects of abortion bans. While results yielded from these studies were not entirely surprising to Galeo, he underscored that "data are necessary, even if not sufficient, to shift the public conversation and to inform decision-making" and called for "elevating the visibility of these findings, and disseminating of these ideas in a way that pushes back against misinformation and disinformation." #healthpolicy #abortionaccess #reproductivehealth

Barriers to Health Care Access for Patients With IBD Patients with inflammatory bowel disease continue to experience challenges with accessing care, often having to skip or ration their medications as a result, which can have serious health consequences, according to an abstract at the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress, the annual meeting of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. “IBD patients continue to experience significant access to care challenges, often having to make dangerous tradeoffs, such as skipping or rationing their medications, continued advocacy for healthcare system and policy reform for affordable care and medications remains imperative,” Ariel A. Jordan, MD, Shubha Bhat, PharmD, MS, BCACP, et al. wrote in the article. https://lnkd.in/ekeX-ncV #gastro #careaccess #IBD

Systemic Solutions to Improve Telehealth Access for Non-English Speakers Experts proposed the Translation, Education, Concordant Care, Community Outreach, and Interpretation (TECCI) framework in an?editorial?accompanying a new study highlighting how systemic factors—rather than patient reluctance—drive disparities in digital health use among patients with non–English language preference (NELP). TECCI aims to guide institutional leaders, scholars, and technology developers in integrating translation, education, and interpretation into telehealth design to ensure that technological advancements improve, rather than exacerbate,?health care inequities.?The authors also critiqued the notion of a “language barrier,” emphasizing that language is a relational factor influenced by patient preferences, clinician skills, and systemic language access resources. Read more about Marianna Kong's research and the framework from Pilar Ortega, MD, MGM: https://lnkd.in/eM2WdV2y #healthequity #concordantcare #NELP #TECCI

Gladys Antelo-Allen, associate director of Education and Training, says health care professionals working in complex care are the real heroes and explains how the new skills lab designed by Camden Coalition can refine essential tools needed for complex care. https://lnkd.in/exYUhGk4 #healthcare #complexcare #healthequity

"For literally hundreds of thousands of Virginians, Medicaid is what prevents them from health crisis on a daily and weekly basis... Your presidential campaign celebrated that the freeze, on all new regulations, guidance, and announcements, is a way to protect unelected bureaucrats from further undermining our health freedom," Sen. Mark Warner (D, Virginia) said during today's hearing. "Then you ask your donors to help pay for your campaign debt." Before the Senate committee hearing on RFK Jr's U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) nomination concluded, the Trump administration reversed course, rescinding?the directive?that had ordered federal agencies to freeze trillions in financial assistance, a move that raised alarms in Washington and the health care industry as it jeopardized coverage for nearly 80 million Americans enrolled in Medicaid. However, just hours before today's announcement, Warner expressed his disdain for Kennedy's support of the federal freeze, citing an announcement Kennedy's campaign team released on Monday, apparently as a fundraising strategy to offset the debt from his presidential run. #HHS #Senate #RFKJr #CMS

Findings published today revealed that while the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the widespread adoption of telemental health care significant racial and ethnic disparities were observed in access to this technology among Medicaid beneficiaries with schizophrenia. https://lnkd.in/e7ATEkSE #schizophrenia #mentalheath #telehealth

Ketamine-assisted therapy is an innovative, evidence-based treatment that can improve mental health, and employers can ensure their workforce has access to it. Following her presentation at the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health Mental Health Summit, Jessica Tracy, head of Growth and Partnerships at Enthea, spoke with Giuliana Grossi in the first 2025 episode of Managed Care Cast's Frameworks for Advancing Health Equity series. #ketamine #mentalhealth #healthcareaccess

“These results emphasize that hypertension management needs to extend beyond prescription medications.?Future work is needed to design interventions that reduce gendered racial microaggressions in the health care setting and investigate their effects on postpartum blood pressure.” - Natalie Cameron, Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine https://lnkd.in/eb44Csph #healthdisparities #hypertension #postpartum

Rachael Drake of University of Kansas Medical Center joined AJMC - The American Journal of Managed Care to discuss how the pharmacy technician and medication assistance teams utilize resources to help patients access their treatments regardless of the status of their health insurance. https://lnkd.in/eNUhU9jB Giuliana Grossi #oncology #pharmacy