A Health Podyssey

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Ashley M. Fox of the University at Albany, SUNY on her recent paper exploring substantial disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake and identifying unmet immunization demand in low- and middle-income countries.Order the "Global Lessons From COVID-19" issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Tse Yang Lim of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on his recent paper that explores why similar policies resulted in different COVID-19 outcomes and how responsiveness as well as culture influenced mortality rates.Order the "Global Lessons From COVID-19" issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Cristian Herrera of The World Bank on his recent paper which sought to identify disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to routine health care services and how eight Latin American and Caribbean countries responded.Order the "Global Lessons from COVID-19" issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

This episode was originally published in April 2023.Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Chip Kahn from the Federation of American Hospitals on his recent paper where he and co-authors argue that CMS hospital value-based programs should be refined to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes.Order the August 2023 issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

This episode was originally published on July 19, 2022.It's well known that the United States spends much more than other high-income countries on health care, the most recent estimates from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published in Health Affairs show that nearly a fifth of US GDP is spent on health care services.It's perhaps somewhat less well known that health outcomes lag those of many other countries. Life expectancy and infant mortality rates rank well below not just other high-income countries, but many middle-income countries as well.The combination of these two facts leads many to ask the question, "Are we getting our money's worth for all that we spend on health care?"However, simply establishing that the US spends a lot on health care and has sub-optimal health outcomes doesn't fully answer the question.Marcia Weaver from the University of Washington joins A Health Podyssey to discuss whether we receive value for our high levels of health spending.Weaver and coauthors published a paper in the July 2022 of Health Affairs examining the relationship between health spending and disease burden in the United States. They reached some optimistic conclusions based on the data.Order the July 2022 issue of Health Affairs for research on Type 2 diabetes and more.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone. Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts

This episode was originally published on January 10, 2023.Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Deepak Palakshappa, associate professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine on his paper in the January 2023 issue examining the relationship between food insecurity and health care expenditures in families.Order the January 2023 issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts

This podcast explores the challenges of implementing accountable care organizations (ACOs) in rural areas and discusses the outcomes of a study on rural ACO investment model facilities. It highlights the financial aspects and savings achieved through ACOs, including a net savings of over $380 million in three years. The high dropout rate among ACOs due to downside risk and the tension between providers and CMS in capturing savings are also discussed. The importance of including non-hospital-based providers in value-based care models and incentivizing providers for health system transformation are explored. Finally, CMS's commitment to accountable models and ensuring success is emphasized.

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Joel Weissman of Brigham and Women's Hospital on his recent paper identifying how hospitals are addressing the effects of structural racism and the ways in which health equity officers have become leaders to enact change.Order the "Tackling Structural Racism in Health" issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Zachary Dyer of University of Massachusetts on his recent paper measuring the enduring imprint of structural racism on American neighborhoods and how the authors developed a new measure, the Structural Racism Effect Index, to identify these impacts.Order the October 2023 issue of Health Affairs on Tackling Structural Racism in Health.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Chidinma Ibe on her recent paper that provides a closer understanding of the value of community health workers' (CHW) voices, social risk factors, and how structural racism shapes CHWs' approach to intervention delivery in structurally vulnerable communities.Ibe and co-authors state their findings underscore the need to embed antiracist principles in the policies and practices that affect the public health workforce.Order the "Tackling Structural Racism in Health" issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.