It’s Not Magic: Turning Higher Ed Data into Insight

By Juliana Keeping, communications manager

Polling has consistently shown Americans across the political spectrum agree that more work needs to be done to ensure drug prices come down for more patients.

What’s Happening: As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work to implement historic drug pricing provisions that will allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of some of its most expensive medications for the first time, it’s worth acknowledging the ramp up in Washington, D.C. in the Senate on the issue, with several committees working on drug pricing legislation.

Why It Matters: The bipartisan attention lately underscores that elected leaders must move on opportunities to fix drug pricing issues related to the abuse of the patent system and supply chain in 2023, an area where there is “generally more consensus” among lawmakers, Mark E. Miller, the executive vice president of health care for Arnold Ventures, told Bloomberg Law this week. For more, read AV grantee R Street’s recent paper on patent reform, which it dubs, “The Key to Lower Drug Prices.”
 
What’s Next: Medicare is the federal health insurance plan for older Americans and people with disabilities. It's also the largest single purchaser of prescription drugs in the country. Medicare negotiation is a strong step forward on the road to lower drug prices. But there is much more to do.  As bipartisan momentum continues to build across the aisle within other areas of drug pricing reform, make sure to read AV’s new piece.

Read 3 Evidence-Based Reasons Why Medicare Negotiation
Makes Sense >

By Torie Ludwin, communications manager

 

This week, Arnold Ventures announced that Kevin Ring, currently the President of FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums), will become its new Vice President of Criminal Justice Advocacy, a role that will help shape criminal justice reform legislative efforts on the Hill and in dozens of states across the country.

News of Ring's hiring lit up Twitter this week. Read more about his experience as an advocate and strategist – and then watch this video from colleagues in the field offering words of welcome, congratulations, and commentary on his dance moves.

Ring reports to the office July 10, and we can't wait.

By Evan Mintz, director of communications

Stakeholders from across the political spectrum are calling on Congress to lower health care costs by addressing differences in payments for the same services at different sites of care. Policies for Medicare site-neutral payments and against dishonest billing, which require physician practices to bill as an office instead of an outpatient department, can make a difference.
 
What’s Happening: A broad and growing coalition of policymakers and health care advocates are lining up behind policies aimed at ensuring the Medicare program and the privately insured aren’t paying more for services delivered in hospital-owned physicians’ offices or outpatient facilities than for those same services delivered in independent settings.
  
As AV grantee Loren Adler, fellow and associate director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, put it: “Lobbyists are pretty much the only opposition [to these policies].”   
 
Why it Matters: This ability to charge higher prices for hospital-based care in both the Medicare program and commercial market creates incentives for hospitals to buy up physician offices, which contributes to increased hospital consolidation and stifles competition. It also shifts care from lower-cost physician offices to higher-cost hospital outpatient departments, even for less-complex services like office visits or MRIs. This all leads to increased health care spending for employers and taxpayers and higher prices and out-of-pocket costs for patients.
 
What’s Next: Last week’s hearings on health care affordability were a promising development. It falls on our elected officials to turn these policies into laws. 

Read Why the Left, Right, and Center All Agree on
Site-Neutral Payments >

Criminal Justice

• A new online resource from the RAND Corporation provides stats and six key findings that address some common myths about hiring people with criminal records.
   
• The Arizona Republic covers the makeup and first meeting of the newly created Arizona Independent Prison Oversight Commission. AV recently published a story on why the commission was created and what its tasks will be.
   
• Spotlight PA reports on how Pennsylvania is one of the only states that currently doesn’t fund public defense, and how Governor Josh Shapiro is hoping to address this issue with his new budget proposal.
   
• A story from NBC News, based on data from the CDC, shows that rural areas have a 37% higher per capita death rate from guns than the most urban counties, and the gap is rising.
   
• MPR News reports on how Minnesota appears likely to become the 23^rd state to legalize recreational marijuana, and how the current proposed legislation contains an automatic expungement provision that would seal the records of certain past marijuana related convictions.
   
• AV’s Director of Criminal Justice Carson Whitelemons issued a statement supporting Clean Slate expansion in Pennsylvania after it passed the House Judiciary Committee.  

Health Care

• As private equity firms and other institutional investors expand rapidly into health care, AV's Complex Care team is working to support ownership transparency and oversight. Read more in a new piece from AV’s Emma Liebman.
   
• More than 12.5 million people rely on both Medicare and Medicaid for health care. A new brief from AV grantee the Kaiser Family Foundation explains how states can build the capacity to better integrate care.
   
• AV grantee Tradeoffs explains how the federal government could save as much as $150 billion over the next decade under a proposed policy known as site-neutral payment. 

Higher Education

• The U.S. Department of Education released updated data for the College Scorecard, a free online tool that helps students, families, and college access professionals make informed decisions about which college to attend. The new data includes a fourth year of post-graduation earnings, information on the share of students who stayed in state after college, earnings by Pell receipt and gender, and an indicator on whether programs can be completed via distance education.
   
• New America released a fascinating blog series on the Gainful Employment rule, showing how proper regulations will improve students’ lives, sanction low-value programs, and let HBCUs and other minority-serving campuses thrive.

Climate and Energy

• Utility Dive published an op-ed by Jessica Lovering and Judy Greenwald, executive director at AV grantee the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, about the need for efficient, effective, timely, and fair siting and permitting processes for building out clean energy infrastructure, including advanced nuclear energy. 

Policy

• Congratulations to Holly Harris, Rich Powell, Maya MacGuineas, Danielle Brian, Trevor Potter, Lee Drutman, Rob Richie, David Mitchell, Hemi Tewarson, and many, many other AV grantees who made the Washingtonian's list of DC's 500 Most Influential People of 2023.

• We love the #WesAnderson TikTok trend, and apparently, we're not alone. A few favorites: a tale of two friends, a visit to a South African winery, a flower farmer’s day, MLS soccer training, Indian grocery shopping, a guide to surviving a global pandemic, and an honest burger.
   
• Who’s got the cleverest picket line signs? Writers, of course. Screenwriters are on strike to make sure that they’re fairly compensated when shows end up on streaming platforms (among other issues). Let's hope we get to find out how Succession ends. Find wit and info at #WGAStrong.
   
• Each spring, the Congressional Institute hosts a nationwide high school art competition. Take a look at the outstanding entries and use ranked-choice voting (RCV) to cast your vote for this year's winner.
   
• Folk-rock icon and '70s troubadour Gordon Lightfoot passed away this week. He was a prolific musician, perhaps best known for somehow turning the sinking of Great Lakes bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald into a six-minute-long, Billboard 100 hit. (free link)