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Taking the Pulse of Health Care Policy

Written by Matthew Porter on . Posted in Positioning Issues and Brands, Elevating Reputations.

In the world of health care public relations, we are tasked with staying up to date with industry trends, elevating reputations and developing earned media plans. As a Washington D.C.-based agency, we have the advantage of being close to policy action so we can keep tabs on what our clients need to know about the fast-moving developments in health care. Here are the top issues we are watching this fall from Congress and the White House, and why they are worth paying attention to.

Drug Pricing

After years of promising to reduce drug costs, Congress is poised to take policy action, launching at least nine bills that take aim at pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) or companies that channel prescription drugs to patients. Elsewhere, The White House, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, made a historic move in announcing the ten drugs selected for price negotiation under the law. This is the first-ever direct drug-price negotiations between pharmaceutical manufacturers and Medicare, and it would have far-reaching implications in reducing costs and expanding the availability of medicines that are crucial for America’s seniors.

Drug Shortages

Significant and dangerous medication shortages have surfaced in recent months, with more than 300 prescription drugs, including critical chemotherapy treatments, being in short supply. The situation is forcing almost 60% of health systems to ration or even postpone care. Congress is considering several policies including a GOP-led effort aimed at enforcing accountability in the drug market by improving transparency and mandating the provision of additional information about manufacturing and distribution. Additionally, The Senate Subcommittee on Health is also poised to consider a bipartisan proposal known as The Drug Shortage Prevention Act that would require producers of prescription drugs to notify the FDA as soon as they anticipate being unable to meet the demand.

Pandemic Preparedness

With the fall season of respiratory illnesses upon us, Congress is also considering how to bolster the public health system to anticipate the inevitable return of the flu, RSV and COVID-19. By October, The Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act expires and requires re-authorization. The act is the backbone of the nation’s public health response, as it accelerates public-private partnerships to develop vaccines and take other actions. Additionally, both chambers of Congress are taking up policy measures to support emergency response and pandemic preparedness. Elsewhere, The White House took action by announcing the appointment of Dr. Paul Friedrichs, a retired Air Force combat surgeon who helped execute the Pentagon’s COVID response, to head the new White House Pandemic Office. He will oversee efforts to fund vaccine development in time to meet these challenges.

Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2023

The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act was recently reintroduced in the House and Senate and will have far-reaching impact if passed. The bipartisan bill would authorize an expansion of Medicare coverage to include screening and treatment of obesity from providers who specialize in obesity care and include coverage of behavioral counseling, prescription drugs for long-term weight manage. The passage of TROA would be a key catalyst to expanding access to obesity treatment across the board, and therefore, improve the health of millions of Americans.

The future for all these important issues remains highly unpredictable, along with proposals effecting Medicaid, health care price transparency and mental health.  One thing that is certain, however, is that The Reis Group will be following all this very closely to make sure our clients are well positioned to succeed.

TRG’s 7th Year: Learning the inner workings of our health care system—from a new perspective

Written by Sharon Reis on . Posted in Firm Culture.

I have worked in health care public relations for more than 25 years and this June marks the seventh anniversary of TRG, the company I founded in 2016. Over these years, I have represented hospitals and health systems, medical societies, research institutes, and foundations spanning all sectors of the health care system. I’ve promoted scientific breakthroughs and rallied for patient advocacy organizations. I thought I understood the inner workings of the U.S. health care system, inside-out—until a close family member unexpectedly faced a diagnosis of advanced-stage cancer.

The last several months have been full of daunting obstacles as I struggled to help manage a family crisis taking place in another state. But I strongly believe that from every challenge emerges an opportunity. For me, I found many moments of gratitude. The airline industry gave me the ability to quickly and easily fly up and down the east coast. Telehealth enabled me to directly join my sister’s doctor’s meetings via a Zoom call or my iPhone. The internet gave me access to her patient portal and the ability to quickly research every term and test. This experience also reminded me that I chose the right profession and the right field. I love health and health care. The science behind her care is complicated and fascinating. This experience reaffirmed for me that this is my calling: working to improve access to quality care, helping patients advocate for themselves, and understanding and translating the complex jargon-filled language of medicine.

Everyone needs to know more about the science behind diseases and treatments, how federal policy changes impact the care they receive in their community, and how to coordinate among their providers and be an advocate for themselves. Health care PR plays a vital role in achieving these goals.

As we mark TRG’s seventh year in business, it is gratifying to see that health care continues to be one of the most pressing issues facing our great nation. Technology continues to bring great promise. We are closely watching and developing policies around AI, apps and other emerging technologies. We are truly excited about their potential to transform health, improve access to care, better manage chronic conditions and change the way we communicate about it.

In TRG’s history, 2017 was the year of increased workload with fewer resources in the PR services field; 2020 was the year of suddenly adapting to a remote virtual work world; and now 2023 marks the return of a work world of face-to-face client meetings, business travel, and a few power lunches and networking dinners.

When we opened our doors seven years ago, I said something that still holds true and that I keep near to my heart. “To give it my best – to really make it shine – I need to work with the best people; people who share my values and my commitment to excellence. I must work in a culture of support, in which our team members see that a major part of our work is to build each other up and help each other succeed.” I look forward to continuing to make that a reality at TRG for many years to come.

Capitol

Communications Solutions to 2023 Advocacy Challenges

Written by Stacy Skelly on . Posted in Increasing Awareness.

As a public relations agency serving medical societies, foundations and health care leaders, The Reis Group often helps clients with earned media and thought-leadership strategies to support their national and state-level advocacy goals. And, for me, having spent the better part of my career at the nexus of communications and policy, I love tackling these efforts side by side with my clients.

Sadly, most Americans consistently give our U.S. health care a failing grade, and they yearn for a path forward to better care. Here in D.C., we see that intense national interest in health care bubbling up with fiery debates in our deeply divided Congress. At the same time, policy and health care leaders at the state and local levels across the nation are grasping for solutions.

Despite these deep-seeded challenges, there are opportunities to create lasting change. In fact, I see three strategies that communicators can use to drive successful state and national activism in 2023:

Enhance your campaign with message testing. The best advocacy campaigns start with an understanding of which messages resonate with your intended audience. Many clients come to us seeking to influence health care leaders or policymakers, but they haven’t ever heard directly from these leaders to understand their motivations. Knowing how specific language can appeal to or dissuade them is key to moving the needle.

Creating that customized approach is part of our proven, iterative TRG methodology to message testing. With this process, we recently helped a foundation client refine its advocacy message for health care providers, health-system executives and thought leaders. Through a set of 16 interviews, conducted in three rounds, we were able to define three tailored message platforms. We learned how each group preferred a similar, but slightly tweaked, version of the same information to help them push for health care strategies that focus on the whole person, not just an individuals’ acute illness or disease.

Capitalize on legislative action to drive earned media coverage. Coordinate closely with your government relations teams. They are on the ground and know when an important bill is about to move out of committee or on to a floor vote. Staying connected also helps when key policy announcements are coming from federal agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We’ve seen this close coordination work for a medical society that ensures federal and state policy supports their clinician members in providing the best possible care for patients. With advanced knowledge, we have developed quick statements and offered reporters early access to their subject matter experts to secure media coverage that advocates for enhanced access to life-saving treatments.

Reach lawmakers where they live. The political saying remains true: “all politics is local.” When you know which lawmakers you want to reach, you can target your efforts to the their local communities, most effectively by placing a commentary in a local paper or landing a key earned media placement. These successes are sometimes more impactful than even a big national hit.

We know that members of Congress and state and local policymakers pay very close attention to their local news outlets. We recently worked with one of our foundation clients to land an editorial in an influential newspaper. As a result of that story, a local government official reached out to the foundation to learn more about their recent research and to find ways to develop statewide wellness programs aligned to foundation goals.

Communications remains the most powerful tool for change. That’s why so many of us at TRG are deeply passionate about what we do. As 2023 unfolds, we look forward to an eventful, productive year supporting policy work already in motion, along with new opportunities to come.

Thriving in an Uncertain Health Care Environment | O’Dwyer’s

Written by Staff on . Posted in Firm Culture.

The unpredictable policy seesaw we are experiencing with the new Administration and Congress appears to be having a tangible impact on the lives of health care communications professionals, and not just those focused on policy.

To learn more about how the uncertain health care environment is affecting workloads and to understand how communications experts are preparing for 2018, Sharon and Tamara surveyed members of the Public Relations Society of America and shared their findings in the October 2017 issue of O’Dwyer’s magazine.

Below are five key areas to focus on in the coming year.

  • Grow your organization’s social media presence
  • Prepare to respond to emerging issues
  • Build content-marketing expertise
  • Seek new groups to partner with on outreach
  • Do more with limited resources
Download the full article and find out if your team is ready to meet the new demands.

 

>>Learn more about Sharon and Tamara and drop them a hello here.

New Challenges for Health Care PR in 2017

Written by Sharon Reis on . Posted in Firm Culture.

2016 was a year of unprecedented change for our industry, with high-stakes battles over the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, culminating in a watershed presidential election. And, if the first few weeks of 2017 are any predictor, health care communications is heading into another turbulent, exciting, and pivotal period.

To keep up with the relentless pace of change, public relations agencies are facing multiple challenges, all providing us opportunities to grow, evolve, and strengthen PR’s value to clients, colleagues, and stakeholders.

Here are my top five trends for public relations strategists to focus on in the new year:

Demonstrating that PR is helping to achieve business goals will be more important than ever.

Beyond the numbers of impressions and engagements, what are we really getting for our PR dollars? How do we clearly show that we are having an impact?

Client demand for thought leadership will continue to grow.

More and more, CEOs are being tasked by their Boards with developing a national reputation and becoming positioned as industry thought leaders. The PR team will spend more time in this area securing national media interviews, speaking engagements, and identifying editorial opportunities.

Digital amplification will be a crucial core component of every health care PR campaign.

It boosts the impact of PR strategies and demonstrates results with engagement and reach.

The ROI of branded content will be held under a microscope.

We know the potential reach is there, but does it substantially drive engagement and spur action? Or is it just an attempted substitute for a lack of results with earned media?

The RFP process will be more scrutinized.

Clients are concerned with getting the maximum amount of value from their tightened PR budgets. The current cattle call for proposals and presentations often doesn’t result in a win for clients.

So, more than ever, we will all be tested to prove our worth, and we’ll have to make sure that we are ready for just about anything…

MACRA | Another Step in Reforming Care Delivery

Written by Hieu Nguyen on . Posted in Promoting Science.

On Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the much-anticipated final rule on the Quality Payment Program (QPP), which is part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 – better known as MACRA. This rule is 2,200 pages (a length that surprises no one familiar with CMS rules) and provides financial incentives—and penalties—for clinicians in the move toward value-based care.

Because this rule will affect hundreds of thousands of clinicians, I think health care communications professionals have a prime opportunity to take an active role in helping clinicians understand the requirements and explain its impact on care delivery by promoting the voices of thought leaders in the field.

I think it’s important to frame any discussion about the rule by the two tracks that clinicians can choose from:

  • For clinicians in individual or small practices, they can take part in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), which continues the move toward payment for quality care and for investments that improve the patient experience
  • QPP sets up Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs), which award clinicians participating in organizations such as an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), by providing a 5 percent payment adjustment from 2019 through 2024

Now the final rule comes after the agency heard from nearly 100,000 attendees at their outreach sessions and received more than 4,000 comments (as CMS’ acting administrator Andy Slavitt discussed in his blog). The feedback provided seems to have online prednisone made a difference in shaping the final rule and gave clinicians a lot of flexibility, which I found somewhat surprising:

  • An estimated 380,000 clinicians could be exempt from the rule
  • Clinicians who do participate have more flexibility in MIPS; specifically, those who aren’t ready to go all-in can submit some data at first without receiving a negative payment adjustment
  • The agency is considering creating a new ACO track—ACO Track 1+—that would have lower risk levels than other APMs

To help health care providers understand these and other aspects of the final rule, communications professionals can do things such as issuing informational one-pagers, and coordinating sessions where providers and administrative staff can speak to individuals who understand the new requirements. I’ve heard experts say how important it is that clinicians understand what CMS needs since there’s more than a year’s delay between reporting data to CMS and the actual start of payment adjustments.

For health care organizations that have subject-matter experts, this is the perfect opportunity to develop thought-leadership pieces that can be placed with health trades. Communication professionals can also pitch the availability of these experts to provide interviews that give reporters an on-the-ground perspective of the rule’s impact.

This rule gives communications professionals the chance to show the value they bring to their health care organization by helping providers understand and follow the evolving reimbursement rules and by positioning their experts as industry thought leaders.