Health Affairs This Week

Late last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its redesign of its Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model to its now-branded Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model. The agency stated the redesign is meant to advance health equity and was in response to stakeholder feedback and participant experience.On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week, Harvard Medical School's Michael Chernew joins Health Affairs Forefront Editor Chris Fleming to talk about the new CMS model for ACOs, and where Medicare Advantage could improve.Related Links:Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model (CMS)The Case For ACOs: Why Payment Reform Remains Necessary (Health Affairs Forefront)Podcast: Michael Chernew Makes The Case for Payment Reform (Health Affairs This Week)Medicare Advantage, Direct Contracting, And The Medicare 'Money Machine,' Part 2: Building On The ACO Model (Health Affairs Forefront)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

Listen to Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott outline President Joe Biden's health care aspirations outlined in his State of the Union Address, which includes information on COVID-19, health care costs, nursing homes, opioid epidemic, the cancer moonshot, and mental health.Related Links:President Biden's State of the Union Address (White House)Fact Sheet: President Biden to Announce Strategy To Address Our National Mental Health Crisis, As Part of Unity Agenda in his First State of the Union (White House)Fact Sheet: Addressing Addiction and the Overdose Epidemic (White House)Fact Sheet: Protecting Seniors and People with Disabilities by Improving Safety and Quality of Care in the Nation's Nursing Homes (White House)The Speech That Mentioned It All (Politico Pulse)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

Listen to Health Affairs' Ellen Bayer and Rob Lott discuss possible implications for health policies related to Medicaid and telehealth when the COVID-19 public health emergency sunsets.Related Links:Is It Fair? How To Approach Professional Scope-Of-Practice Policy After The COVID-19 Pandemic (Health Affairs Forefront)Medicare Beneficiaries' Use of Telehealth in 2020: Trends By Beneficiary Characteristics and Location (ASPE)Opinion: In This Next Phase of the Pandemic, Beware of the Extremes (The Washington Post)2/15/22: Extending the Public Health Emergency Remains Complicated (Politico Pulse)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

Last week, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a report showing that outpatient telehealth use has decreased after an initial spike in use during the COVID-19 pandemic's early months. This week, a new Stat News report examines whether telehealth services actually lowers health care costs and spending.It's known that telehealth use was low before the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, it has been challenging to scale and integrate telemedicine and virtual care models within the broader health care system. Dr. Thomas Lee, founder and CEO of Galileo Health, joins Health Affairs This Week host Leslie Erdelack to discuss the state of telehealth, access to care, and health equity. Before starting Galileo, Dr. Lee founded One Medical, a primary care company. Related Links:Outpatient telehealth use soared early in the COVID-19 pandemic but has since receded (Kaiser Family Foundation)What we know - and still don't know - about whether telehealth can cut costs (Stat News)Variation In Telemedicine Use and Outpatient Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States (Health Affairs)Seizing The Moment For Telehealth Policy and Equity (Health Affairs Forefront)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

“Racism is an uncomfortable subject for a lot of people in academia and academic publishing itself is part of the problem, in that a lot of journals including Health Affairs have neglected to name racism and publish research about how racism harms health.” - Leslie Erdelack. In February, Health Affairs published a theme issue dedicated to racism and health. Understanding and addressing the impact of racism, particularly structural racism, on health is essential to building equity in health. As Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil wrote on Health Affairs Forefront in June 2020, the legacy of racism “is baked into our institutions, our thinking, and our policies.” Racism must be explored as a key driver of health outcomes and health disparities.  In today's episode, Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Leslie Erdelack discuss the publication process, main findings, and research insights from the Health Affairs February 2022 theme issue on racism and health.Health Affairs thanks Rachel Hardeman of the University of Minnesota and José Figueroa of Harvard University, who served as theme issue advisers. Health Affairs also thanks the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, the Episcopal Health Foundation, the New York State Health Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for their generous support of this issue.Order the February 2022 Health Affairs Racism and Health theme issue.Related Links:Health Affairs Racism and Health Theme IssueHealth Affairs' Interview with Harriet Washington, author of Medical Apartheid Systemic and Structural Racism: Definitions, Examples, Health Damages, And Approaches To Dismantling (Health Affairs)Sick And Tired Of Being Excluded: Structural Racism In Disenfranchisement As A Threat To Population Health Equity (Health Affairs)The Mutually Reinforcing Cycle Of Poor Data Quality And Racialized Stereotypes That Shapes Asian American Health (Health Affairs)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

This week, a major development in health care reform occurred in California.Listen to Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott talk about the headlines in health policy news (including President Joe Biden's revived Cancer Moonshot initiative) and the latest in California's fight for single-payer health insurance where they ask, as California goes, so goes the country?Related Links:Single-Payer Healthcare Proposal Fizzles in California Assembly (Los Angeles Times)California Theme Issue - September 2018 (Health Affairs)What We Talk About When We Talk About Single Payer (Health Affairs Forefront)Could States Do Single-Payer Health Care? (Health Affairs Forefront)Single Payer Or Not: Matching Problems With Solutions (Health Affairs Forefront)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

This week on Health Affairs Forefront (formerly known as the Health Affairs Blog), Michael Chernew, director of the Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, and Michael McWilliams, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, wrote a piece making the case for accountable care organizations (ACOs) and how fee-for-service payment models lack efficiency.Today on Health Affairs This Week, Michael Chernew joins Health Affairs Forefront Editor Chris Fleming to discuss the Forefront piece, ACOs, direct contracting, why health care payment reform remains necessary in 2022, and more.Related Links:The Case For ACOs: Why Payment Reform Remains Necessary (Health Affairs Forefront)Medicare Advantage, Director Contracting, And The Medicare 'Money Machine," Part 1: The Risk-Score Game (Health Affairs Forefront)Coding-Driven Changes In Measured Risk In Accountable Care Organizations (Health Affairs)Podcast: Matthew Trombley on Why Many Providers Run From Downside Risk In ACOs (A Health Podyssey)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

DICLAIMER: This episode contains mentions of suicide, which some listeners may find harmful or disturbing. The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on the importance addressing mental health and behavioral health concerns.As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic - which may or may not become endemic - many Americans, including health care providers, are rethinking their relationship to their mental health.Listen to Health Affairs' Ellen Bayer and Kathleen Haddad talk about mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, physician burnout, clinician burnout, and more.Related Links:Coping With Trauma, Celebrating Life: Reinventing Patient And Staff Support During The COVID-19 Pandemic (Health Affairs)The Kids Are Not All Right: The Urgent Need To Expand Effective Behavioral Health Services For Children And Youth (Health Affairs Forefront)Transforming Mental Health And Addiction Services (Health Affairs)Protecting Mental Health (Project Hope)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

With the Omicron coronavirus rapidly spreading through the United States, many are reassessing their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the CDC revised its guidelines for quarantine and isolation periods (which was met with mixed reactions). Workers, organizations, and schools are all trying to navigate this period of uncertainty as infections rise.On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week, Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Rob Lott discuss the latest on COVID-19 quarantine periods, CDC guidance on the subject, and how those recommendations and the ongoing pandemic is affecting the health care workforce.Related Links:Nurse Employment During The First Fifteen Months Of The COVID-19 Pandemic (Health Affairs)Emerging Health Workforce Strategies To Address COVID-19 (Health Affairs Forefront)CDC Updates and Shortens Recommended Isolation and Quarantine Period for General Population (CDC)California Department of Public Health Regarding Quarantine and Isolation Periods (CDPH)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

While COVID-19 shallowed many headlines in the health care space, a lot of movement was made in various health policy areas, including prescription drug pricing.On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week, Rachel Sachs, the Treiman Professor of Law at the Washington University in St. Louis, joins the program with Health Affairs Forefront Editor Chris Fleming to discuss Aduhelm and drug pricing. The two discuss Rachel's latest Health Affairs Forefront article (formerly known as Health Affairs Blog) and review what happened in the prescription drug space last year and preview what to watch in 2022. Related Links:Prescription Drug Policy: The Year In Review, And The Year Ahead (Health Affairs Forefront)The FDA's Approval Of Aduhelm: Potential Implications Across A Wide Range Of Health Policy Issues And Stakeholders (Health Affairs Forefront)Podcast: Drug Pricing On The Agenda For Massive Infrastructure Bill (Health Affairs This Week)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast