NHC Board of Directors Approves COVID-19 Policy Matrix

06/15/2020

By Maddie Mason, Senior Associate, Policy

The National Health Council’s (NHC’s) Policy Committee and Board of Directors develop a Policy Matrix each year that serves as a roadmap to guide our policy work. For more on the 2020 NHC Policy Matrix, please read our previous blog post here. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHC’s policy work rapidly shifted to address a different set of issues directly related to the impacts of the virus. The NHC Board Policy Committee developed our COVID-19 Matrix, which was approved by the NHC Board of Directors on June 9, 2020.

The format of the COVID-19 Matrix is similar to the 2020 Policy Matrix. It is divided into four quadrants: Lead, Partner, Engage as Needed, and Monitor, and is rated on a scale that determines both the degree to which the NHC can have an impact and the importance these issues have to the patient advocacy community. The COVID-19 Matrix specifically highlights the following issues:

Lead

  • Non-Profit Relief
  • Access to stimulus funds
  • Universal tax deduction
  • Access to Main Street lending
  • Continuity of Care
  • Telemedicine
  • Access to physician-administered drugs
  • Prescriptions refills
  • Protecting patients from premium cost sharing increases

Partner

  • Affordable testing, vaccine, and treatment
  • Nondiscrimination in treatment rationing
  • Ensuring continuity of biomedical research
  • Coverage for uninsured
  • Enhancing and protecting Medicaid
  • Opening exchanges for individual enrollment
  • COBRA subsidies

Engage as Needed

  • Surprise Medical Billing Associated with COVID-19
  • Testing
  • Treatment
  • Supply Chain Issues
  • PPE
  • Drug shortages

Monitor

  • Broad access to sick leave and FMLA
  • Strengthening the public health infrastructure
  • Unemployment benefits

COVID-19 and NHC Policy Work

In the past few months, the NHC has had a significant focus on COVID-19 related issues. To learn more about our leadership in this area, please check out this blog post. It is important to emphasize that although we have developed a new COVID-19 Matrix to address the current issues, we continue our work on issues in our 2020 Policy Matrix and acting on those issues when relevant.