

A Health Podyssey
Health Affairs
Each week, Health Affairs' Rob Lott brings you in-depth conversations with leading researchers and influencers shaping the big ideas in health policy and the health care industry.
A Health Podyssey goes beyond the pages of the health policy journal Health Affairs to tell stories behind the research and share policy implications. Learn how academics and economists frame their research questions and journey to the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Health policy nerds rejoice! This podcast is for you.
A Health Podyssey goes beyond the pages of the health policy journal Health Affairs to tell stories behind the research and share policy implications. Learn how academics and economists frame their research questions and journey to the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Health policy nerds rejoice! This podcast is for you.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 5, 2024 • 20min
John Bowblis on Increased Reliance on Staffing Agencies in Nursing Homes
Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews John Bowblis of Miami University on his recent paper that explores trends in the use of staffing agencies among nursing homes. Through this study, Bowblis and coauthors observed an increased reliance on these agencies for direct care nursing due to chronic staff shortages. Order the March 2024 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.

Feb 27, 2024 • 23min
Kierra Barnett on The Impacts of Discriminatory Policies on Housing and Health
Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Kierra Barnett of Nationwide Children's Hospital on her recent paper that details the history of discriminatory policies in the Ohio Neighborhood of Linden and what impacts they've had on housing as well as maternal and infant health. Order the "Housing and 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.

Feb 20, 2024 • 26min
Sandra Newman on Housing Vouchers and the Measurable Medical Benefits Provided
Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Sandra Newman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on her recent paper that explores the measurable health and related benefits of housing vouchers to families. The benefits observed included parental stress reduction, improved cost burdens, neighborhood safety as well as many other impacts.Order the "Housing and 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.

Feb 13, 2024 • 25min
Ingrid Gould Ellen on Advancing Health Equity at the Neighborhood Level
Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Ingrid Gould Ellen of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service on how neighborhood environments can affect health and health equity. The discussion also considers how interventions at the neighborhood level could advance health equity.Order the "Housing and 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.

Feb 6, 2024 • 27min
Michael Mayer on Encampment Clearings and Transitional Housing
Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Michael Mayer of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program on his recent paper that explores the impacts of encampment clearings on the homeless population in Boston and how transitional harm reduction housing provided a unique opportunity for former encampment residents.Order the "Housing and 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.

Jan 30, 2024 • 21min
Ashley Fox on Major Disparities in COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake
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.

Jan 23, 2024 • 26min
Tse Yang Lim on How Different Societal Responses Elicited Very Different Mortality Rates During COVID-19
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.

Jan 16, 2024 • 29min
Cristian Herrera on the COVID-19 Disruption to Latin American and Caribbean Countries
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.

Dec 27, 2023 • 28min
BEST OF: Chip Kahn on Value-Based Payment Problems
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.

Dec 19, 2023 • 25min
BEST OF: Marcia Weaver Explains Two Decades of Health Care Spending Effectiveness
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