Excerpt – Florida is among the states that have abandoned a decades-old regulation meant to keep medical costs in check. The requirement, used nearly nationwide until the 1980s, allowed new hospital construction only if a state issued a “Certificate of Need,” or CON. The process involves would-be hospital builders applying to the state and the state government evaluating need based on criteria such as population growth and existing hospital capacity. About two-thirds of states still require a CON. But several, including Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina, have this year debated whether to scrap or loosen restrictions. West Virginia relaxed its … Read More
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“Well intentioned as the [proposed menthol-flavored cigarette] ban may be, it has angered some Black leaders, including a group of ministers who have rallied against Ms. Hochul’s proposal because they worry it could increase encounters between Black people and the police if menthol cigarettes were to go underground and authorities crack down on sellers. Other Black opponents of the ban suggest it may be discriminatory, a heavy-handed crackdown on the preferred nicotine fix of Black smokers, even if African American men have the highest rates of lung cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some smokers said that if the … Read More
“The effects of social determinants of health (SDOH) on health outcomes have been extensively evaluated and described. Efforts to elucidate the impact of specific unmet health-related social needs (HRSN), such as food insecurity and lack of transportation, on specific outcome measures can help pinpoint necessary interventions and policy changes. [..] In recent years, the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services (CMS) have placed higher priority on addressing health equity, including directly addressing unmet HRSN and accounting for social risk in Medicare payments. For payments, a growing body of literature has demonstrated that health care systems caring for patients with higher social … Read More
“The concept of cardiovascular health (CVH) was proposed by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2010 and is composed of both lifestyle factors and biological metrics. The original algorithm for evaluating CVH was the Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) score. In 2022, the AHA published the new algorithm for evaluating CVH, the Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) score, on the basis of feedback on the LS7 score and new evidence. The LE8 score adopts a new scoring algorithm and incorporates sleep health into CVH.8 Intriguingly, previous studies have shown that having a higher CVH level was not only associated with a lower … Read More
“The high cost of health insurance and health care services now affects not only the uninsured but also middle-class Americans with employment-based health insurance (ESI), enrollees in the Affordable Care Act exchanges, and Medicare beneficiaries. A popular concept in health policy discussions is the “iron triangle”: here, here, here, here, and here. These authors posit that it is impossible to increase access and quality of care while simultaneously reducing spending. That idea warrants further scrutiny. [..] evidence suggests that failure to improve affordability is primarily due not to a mathematical “iron triangle” constraint, but an “iron curtain” of stakeholders who are aware of promising alternatives but oppose their … Read More
“The perpetual diet wars between factions promoting low-carbohydrate, keto, paleo, high-protein, low-fat, plant-based, vegan, and a seemingly endless list of other diets have led to substantial public confusion and mistrust in nutrition science. While debate rages about the relative merits and demerits of various so-called healthy diets, less attention is paid to the fact that otherwise diverse diet recommendations often share a common piece of advice: avoid ultra-processed foods. [..] The rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes prevalence occurred in parallel with an increasingly industrialized food system characterized by large-scale production of high-yield, inexpensive, agricultural “inputs” (primarily corn, soy, … Read More
Select Key Findings Policy Issues Debating the Future: Does H@H Save Costs and Improve Patient Care? “[..] Recent studies of cost savings from H@H programs range from 20 percent (Reese 2021) to 40 percent (Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Levine et al. 2020). But these findings are not generalizable as they are based entirely on single case studies of highly structured programs involving small samples of very carefully selected patients. For example, the study of Brigham and Women’s program examined 91 adults who were admitted to the hospital’s ED and randomly assigned to the hospital vs home for treatment. [..] While … Read More
“[..] spending on hospital care makes up the largest single component of personal health care spending, an estimated 39 percent of the total in 2023, compared to 24 percent for physician and clinical services and 10 percent for prescription drugs. National spending on hospital care is projected to exceed $1.5 trillion in 2023, and is expected to grow by about 5.6 percent per year over the coming decade (a rate likely to significantly exceed general inflation). Much of this growth is driven by consolidation among hospitals and health systems, which then use their size and local market power to demand … Read More
“[Introduction] [..] population-based payment models, as in the Medicare Shared Savings Program or Medicare Advantage (MA) program, can facilitate the resource reallocations necessary to address health care disparities. Risk adjustment is the mechanism by which payment is allocated in these models. Traditionally, risk adjustment has been conceived and executed purely as a predictive exercise. Regression is used to predict total annual per person spending as a function of demographic and clinical characteristics. A person’s predicted spending is converted to a risk score, which is applied to a base regional rate to determine the prospective payment or benchmark for that person. … Read More
“driven by an increasing focus on “total-cost value-based care” — a model in which health care providers are paid to manage the total cost of care for their patients and the size of each patient’s capitated budget may be increased on the basis of the patient’s health risks and the provider’s performance on quality metrics. Though potentially beneficial for certain well-insured patients, the trend of corporate investment in primary care could threaten equitable access to care, raise health care costs, and reduce physicians’ clinical autonomy. [..] As Medicare and commercial payers move toward total-cost value-based payments, such as capitation, and … Read More