Research Roundup: Health Law Coverage; HPV Vaccine; And Medicare Part D

Commonwealth Fund: Health Insurance Coverage Eight Years After The ACA — 2018 Biennial
What does health insurance coverage look like for Americans today, more than eight years after the Affordable Care Act’s passage? In this brief, we present findings from the Commonwealth Fund’s latest Biennial Health Insurance Survey to assess the extent and quality of coverage for U.S. working-age adults. Conducted since 2001, the survey uses three measures to gauge the adequacy of people’s coverage. (Collins, Bhupal and Doty, 2/7)

Pediatrics: Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Effectiveness And Herd Protection In Young Women
Clinical trials of the 4-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine demonstrate high efficacy, but surveillance studies are essential to examine the long-term impact of vaccine introduction on HPV prevalence in community settings. The aims of this study were to determine during the 11 years after vaccine introduction the prevalence of (1) vaccine-type HPV in adolescent and young adult women who were vaccinated (to assess vaccine effectiveness) and (2) vaccine-type HPV in women who were unvaccinated (to assess herd protection). (Spinner et al, 2/1)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: The Out-Of-Pocket Cost Burden For Specialty Drugs In Medicare Part D In 2019
Medicare Part D has helped to make prescription drugs more affordable for people with Medicare, yet many beneficiaries continue to face high out-of-pocket costs for their medications. Specialty tier drugs—defined by Medicare as drugs that cost more than $670 per month in 2019—are a particular concern for Part D enrollees in this context. Part D plans are allowed to charge between 25 percent and 33 percent coinsurance for specialty tier drugs before enrollees reach the coverage gap, where they pay 25 percent for all brands, followed by 5 percent coinsurance when total out-of-pocket spending exceeds an annual threshold ($5,100 in 2019). While specialty tier drugs are taken by a relatively small share of enrollees, spending on these drugs has increased over time and now accounts for over 20 percent of total Part D spending, up from about 6 to 7 percent before 2010. (Cubanski, Koma and Neuman, 2/1)

Pediatrics: Family Firearm Ownership And Firearm-Related Mortality Among Young Children: 1976–2016
Firearm-related fatalities are a top 3 cause of death among children in the United States. Despite historical declines in firearm ownership, the firearm-related mortality rate among young children has risen over the past decade. In this study, we examined changes in firearm ownership among families with young children from 1976 to 2016, exploring how such changes relate to recent increases in firearm-related mortality among 1- to 5-year-olds. (Prickett, Gutierrez and Deb, 2/1)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Comparing Automated Office Blood Pressure Readings With Other Methods Of Blood Pressure Measurement For Identifying Patients With Possible Hypertension: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis
This systematic review and meta-analysis of 31 articles comprising 9279 participants compared automated office blood pressure with awake ambulatory blood pressure, a standard for predicting cardiovascular risk. Mean automated office blood pressure readings were similar to the awake ambulatory blood pressure readings and did not exhibit the “white coat effect” associated with routine office blood pressure measurement. (Roerecke, Kaczorowski and Myers, 2/4)