Last week, the Federal Trade Commission launched a formal inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Listen to Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Vabren Watts discuss the FTC's probe into PBMs and how vertical integration and consolidation may affect patients and health care consumers. Related Links: FTC Launches Investigation Into Major Pharmacy Benefit Managers' Business Practices ( FierceHealthcare ) A Six-Step Solution To The PBM Problem ( Health Affairs Forefront ) On Drug Prices, Phar...
Jun 17, 2022•9 min•Ep. 78
Listen to Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Ellen Bayer go over the big health policy headlines from this week, including what we know about Monkeypox, the implications of the latest Medicare Trustees Report, and nursing home workforce shortages. Related Links: 2022 Medicare Trustees Report (CMS) Medicare's Supplementary Medical Insurance Fund: A Growing Burden on Taxpayers ( Health Affairs Forefront ) The Coming Crisis For The Medicare Trust Fund ( Health Affairs Forefront ) Fact Sheet: Prot...
Jun 10, 2022•9 min•Ep. 77
Listen to Health Affairs' Rob Lott and Chris Fleming put the FDA under the microscope on user fees and baby formula shortages. Related Links: FDA User Fee Reauthorization Bill Emerges In Both Chambers ( Health Affairs Forefront ) Fact Sheet: President Biden Announces New Actions to Address Infant Formula Shortage (White House) Biden Invokes the Defense Production Act for the Baby Formula Shortage ( NPR ) Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast...
Jun 03, 2022•12 min•Ep. 76
TRIGGER WARNING: This episode discusses the subject of gun violence and death. Health Affairs's Jessica Bylander and Vabren Watts discuss this week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas and the recent history of gun policy in the United States. Violence permeates our society. One response to violence is to better understand its origins and how to prevent it. We invite you to read the Violence and Health issue of Health Affairs from 2019 to better understand the impacts that gun violence has on comm...
May 27, 2022•9 min•Ep. 75
Listen to Health Affairs' Chris Fleming and Tim Jost discuss Supreme Court cases that could strip enrollees in Medicaid and other programs of the right to sue to enforce their rights. Related Links: Is The Supreme Court Poised To Wipe Out Legal Rights For Medicaid Beneficiaries? ( Health Affairs Forefront ) Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast...
May 20, 2022•15 min•Ep. 74
“In addition to this being a public health issue, these questions around health equity appear to have motivated FDA’s decision to move on developing these new product standards.” – Leslie Erdelack On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week , Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Ellen Bayer unpack the FDA's proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and its public health implications including concerns for health equity. Related Links: FDA Proposes Action On Menthol Cigarettes and Flavored Cigars ( He...
May 13, 2022•10 min•Ep. 73
Early this week, Politico published a draft opinion from the Supreme Court that would overturn abortion rights in the United States. On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week , Health Affairs' Senior Editors Jessica Bylander and Chris Fleming unpack the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade and could have sweeping health care implications beyond just abortion care. Related Links: Supreme Court Has Voted To Overturn Abortion Rights, Draft Opinion Shows (...
May 06, 2022•13 min•Ep. 72
Listen to Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott go over the big health policy headlines from this week, including details on childhood vaccinations, Title 42 and the intersection of public health and border policies, and federal drug control strategies. Related Links: Borders, Immigrants & Health Theme Issue ( Health Affairs ) Health Care Gaps For Migrants & Asylum Seekers On The Mexico Border During COVID-19 ( A Health Podyssey ) Vaccination Coverage with Selected Vaccines and Ex...
Apr 29, 2022•14 min•Ep. 71
Health Affairs This Week is on a break this week. Today, we are publishing an episode from A Health Podyssey , where Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil brings you in-depth conversations with leading researchers and influencers shaping the big ideas in health policy and the health care industry. Health Affairs This Week will return next week. Subscribe to A Health Podyssey : RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts The United States is facing a drug affordability crisis. ...
Apr 22, 2022•31 min•Ep. 70
Listen to Health Affairs' Senior Editor Kathleen Haddad and Health Equity Director Vabren Watts discuss advancing health equity in health policy and publishing. “Once you start advancing one aspect of equity, you start advancing other aspects of equity,” says Watts. The two highlight Health Affairs' work on health equity since launching a formal plan in January 2021 and research highlights from our digital publication Health Affairs Forefront as well as our February 2022 theme issue on Racism An...
Apr 15, 2022•11 min•Ep. 69
President Joe Biden's administration this week published a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the "family glitch" in the Affordable Care Act. In essence, the rule would revise the eligibility for premium tax credits for families. It's a wonky but important policy measure. In today's episode of Health Affairs This Week , Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Georgetown University's Katie Keith break down the proposed rule, what the "family glitch" is, how the Biden administration seeks to amend...
Apr 08, 2022•14 min•Ep. 68
A new ahead-of-print from Health Affairs features the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) annual projections of national health expenditures. John Poisal and colleagues estimate national health spending growth will moderate from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 4.2 percent in 2021 as COVID-19 impacts wane. Listen to Health Affairs' Ellen Bayer and Chris Fleming dissect the latest national health spending projections on today's Health Affairs This Week . Pre-order the April 2022 issue where th...
Apr 01, 2022•13 min•Ep. 67
This month, three US credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - announced changes to medical collection debt reporting , which will remove nearly 70% of medical collection debt tradelines from consumer credit reports. As financial security is a major social determinant of health, Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Chris Fleming join Health Affairs This Week to discuss medical debt changes and their potential impact of the changes on health. Related Links: No Surprises Act: K...
Mar 25, 2022•12 min•Ep. 66
Late last month, the White House called out private equity firms in a fact sheet on the safety and quality of nursing homes . "Private equity firms have been buying up struggling nursing homes, and research shows that private equity-owned nursing homes tend to have significantly worse outcomes for residents," the fact sheet reads, adding that "Private equity firms’ investment in nursing homes has ballooned from $5 billion in 2000 to more than $100 billion in 2018, with about 5% of all nursing ho...
Mar 18, 2022•11 min•Ep. 65
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...
Mar 11, 2022•13 min•Ep. 64
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 ...
Mar 04, 2022•14 min•Ep. 63
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 Extreme...
Feb 25, 2022•15 min•Ep. 62
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 c...
Feb 18, 2022•15 min•Ep. 61
“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 ...
Feb 11, 2022•13 min•Ep. 60
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 ...
Feb 04, 2022•14 min•Ep. 59
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 Forefr...
Jan 28, 2022•15 min•Ep. 58
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 he...
Jan 21, 2022•10 min•Ep. 57
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 p...
Jan 14, 2022•15 min•Ep. 56
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 Affai...
Jan 07, 2022•15 min•Ep. 55
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 Flem...
Dec 17, 2021•14 min•Ep. 54
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 Cent...
Dec 10, 2021•9 min•Ep. 53
The first Omicron COVID-19 variant case was confirmed in the state of California this week. But there is a lot we don't know about this new COVID-19 variant. On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week , Health Affairs ' Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott discuss what's known (and not known) about the new variant, global health inequity, and how the HIV/AIDS epidemic can inform the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Related Links: President Biden Announces New Actions to Protect Americans Against t...
Dec 03, 2021•15 min•Ep. 52
Since its inception, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has faced legal challenges. With the law on the books for more than 10 years, the measure is still facing litigation. Cases currently pending before the Supreme Court include Section 1557, the ACA’s primary nondiscrimination provision. The court is still considering to take on additional cases against the ACA related to the health insurance tax and hospital reimbursement policies. To discuss and make sense of the myriad challenges and lawsuits, ...
Nov 19, 2021•15 min•Ep. 51
Last week, a lot of the coverage regarding the U.S. off-year election cycle focused on the victory of Republican Glenn Youngkin in Virginia . But there were a number of amendments throughout state elections that focused on public health initiatives. Listen to Health Affairs ' Jessica Bylander and Jeff Byers review some of the public health ballot measures, which touched on topics such as food insecurity, right to food, environmental rights, and police reform. Related Links: The Importance Of Men...
Nov 12, 2021•11 min•Ep. 50
Health spending currently accounts for nearly 18% of the US' Gross Domestic Product. If the nation spends so much on health care - about $11,500 per person in the US - then are we getting a good value in return for that spending? Last week, Health Affairs launched a newsletter for our Considering Health Spending initiative to bring readers a forum for emerging research that sheds light on how much the nation spends on health care and how we might improve the value of that spending or even change...
Nov 05, 2021•13 min•Ep. 49
