Health Affairs This Week

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.“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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.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 Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.This week, Health Affairs released the annual national health care spending data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Using data from 2020, the first data which relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report found health spending reached a record high in 2020.  But Health Affairs had some of its own news this week as well. We are rebranding our respected Health Affairs Blog into a new digital publication named Health Affairs Forefront.  Health Affairs' Rob Lott and Chris Fleming convene on Health Affairs This Week to discuss CMS' new national health care spending data and what's behind the rebrand to Health Affairs Forefront.Related Links:National Health Care Spending In 2020: Growth Driven By Federal Spending In Response To The COVID-19 Pandemic (Health Affairs)Welcome to Health Affairs Forefront (Health Affairs Forefront)Innovation At The Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services: A Vision For The Next 10 Years (Health Affairs Forefront)The Workforce for Non-Police Behavioral Health Crisis Response Doesn't Exist - We Need To Create It (Health Affairs Forefront)Podcast: LIVE with with Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator (A Health Podyssey)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.With 2021 about to be in the rearview mirror, Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Ellen Bayer gather on Health Affairs This Week to quickly chat about some of the biggest developments in health policy for the year.Looking back, they talk about the Biden administration's health agenda - which includes a focus on health equity and innovation - as well as the Build Back Better measure, how infrastructure relates to health policy, and where we move from here.Related Links:Innovation At The Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services: A Vision For The Next 10 Year (Health Affairs Blog)A Strategic Vision For Medicaid And The Children's Health Insurance Program (Health Affairs Blog)How the House Spending Bill Would Expand Health Care Benefits (The Washington Post)Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government (White House)My First 100 Days and Where We Go From Here: A Strategic Vision for CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.