Health Affairs

Evaluating A New Era In Medicare Hospice And End-Of-Life Policy

The hospice benefit was added to the Medicare program in 1983 to provide comprehensive, interdisciplinary care for beneficiaries in the last six months of life. Currently, one in two beneficiaries use some hospice care prior to their death. New Year’s...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2015 10:15 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Medicare, Quality, End-of-Life Care, Palliative Care, Featured, Payment Policy, Costs and Spending, CMMI, Health Professionals, Service Intensity Add-On payments, advanced care planning, seniors

Diving Into The Pool Of ACO Quality Measures: MSSP Year 2 Performance Metrics

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) released the second year of quality performance measures in August 2015. CMS provided data on each of the 33 quality measures and two composite scores for 333 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2015 8:50 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Quality, Hospitals, Population Health, Featured, Payment Policy, Costs and Spending, Health Professionals, ACOs, Medicare Shared Savings Program, benchmarks, doctor patient relationship

ACA Marketplace Enrollment Numbers Up From Last Year

Implementing Health Reform. On December 18, 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that 5.97 million consumers have actively selected a plan through healthcare.gov for coverage effective January 1, 2016. This compares to 3.4 million...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2015 11:26 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Featured, Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, open enrollment, Federally Facilitated Marketplace

Designing Good Research To Support Good Policy: The Case Of Health IT

Several weeks ago on Health Affairs Blog , we wrote an article about the role of poor research design in policy formulation. As part of that article, we praised RAND’s 2013 Health Affairs article for reporting that their 2005 Health Affairs article over...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2015 5:26 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Health IT, RAND, Industry, economics, research design

IRS Releases Final Rule On Premium Tax Credits, Notice Addressing Employer Coverage

Implementing Health Reform. On December 16, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a final regulation containing a number of premium tax credit eligibility provisions. Several of these concern the question of when an employer-sponsored health...

Published Thu, Dec 17 2015 12:55 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Costs and Spending, MAGI, employee wellness incentives, ACA premium tax credits, family glitch, COBRA, TRICARE, minimum value rule, AmeriCorps

Update On Graduate Medical Education Positions

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) recently published its annual Data Resource Book (DRB). The ACGME DRB provides authoritative data on trends of interest to those involved in Graduate Medical Education (GME) and physician...

Published Thu, Dec 17 2015 9:40 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Medicare, Hospitals, Featured, Costs and Spending, Health Professionals, Graduate medical education, National Resident Matching Program, medical pipeline

Eyes On The Final Prize: Integrating Services To Transform Global Health

As 2015 draws to a close, the global health community is examining the strides that have been made and how we can transform this progress into further gains across the public health spectrum. The United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs...

Published Thu, Dec 17 2015 4:55 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Public Health, Global Health, Featured, Organization and Delivery, Equity and Disparities, HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, United Nations, sustainable development goals, universal health care, Japan

Health Affairs Web First: Access To Care In The US Rose 3.4 Percentage Points Since ACA Implementation

While millions of Americans have gained insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded access to health insurance coverage in January 2014, little is known about how access to and affordability of care are changing under the ACA. A new...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2015 1:49 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs, Featured, Insurance and Coverage, Medicaid and CHIP, access to care, Web First, ACA coverage, Health Reform Monitoring Survey

The Payment Reform Landscape: A Standard Framework To Evaluate Payment Reform Programs

As health care costs continue to rise and the quality of care remains inconsistent, employers, other private and public health care purchasers, health plans, and providers are now experimenting in earnest with reforms to how we deliver and pay for health...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2015 1:17 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Quality, Featured, Payment Policy, Insurance and Coverage, Costs and Spending, Catalyst for Payment Reform, payment reform progams

How Does The Budget Agreement Affect The ACA?

Late in the day on December 15, 2015, House Republicans released the $1.1 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2016 and a $650 billion tax extenders package . The legislation embodies an agreement among Congressional leaders that will keep the...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2015 11:41 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Featured, Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Costs and Spending, open enrollment, Cadillac tax, Prevention and Public Health Fund., health insurance provider fee, medical device tax, risk corridors

To Debunk Alternative Vaccine Schedules, Physicians Must Listen Then Respond

“I just don’t think his little body can handle all of those shots,” the young mother said to me at her two-month-old son’s check up. “Can’t we wait until he is older? Or spread them out?” As a pediatrician in the Bay Area, I have encountered a wide range...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2015 4:29 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Public Health, Physicians, Children, Featured, Organization and Delivery, Drugs and Medical Technology, vaccines, Health Professionals, physician perspective

Health Affairs Conversation: Arnold Milstein Discusses The California Health Policy Landscape

In the latest installment of the Health Affairs Conversations podcast series , Arnold Milstein discusses important aspects of the California health policy landscape. Milstein, a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and Medical Director of the...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2015 12:29 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Employer-Sponsored Insurance, Medicare, Featured, Insurance and Coverage, Organization and Delivery, Costs and Spending, California, Cadillac tax

Macy Foundation Goes On The Road To Spotlight Innovations In Doctor Training

Since the July 2014 release of the Institute of Medicine’s report calling for a more publicly accountable graduate medical education (GME) system, the report has sparked an often contentious discourse among stakeholders about who wins and who loses. Because...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2015 9:48 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Workforce, Innovation, Health Philanthropy, GrantWatch, Payment Policy, Health Professionals, Graduate medical education, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation

Court Rejects Challenge By Secular Entity To ACA Contraceptive Coverage Requirement

Implementing Health Reform. On December 10, 2015, Judge John Jones III of the federal district court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania decided yet another contraceptive coverage case . Unlike the dozens of challenges to the Affordable Care Act contraceptive...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2015 11:40 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Population Health, Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Costs and Spending, Equity and Disparities, Drugs and Medical Technology, Pennsylvania, contraceptive mandate, Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Briefing Recap: Barriers To Care For Patients With Complex Health Needs

The 2015 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey, the 18 th annual, gathered information from thousands of primary care physicians in 10 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The results showed that while...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2015 11:25 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Public Health, Physicians, Health IT, Primary Care, Global Health, Quality, Elsewhere@ Health Affairs, Health Professionals, Long-term Services and Supports, OECD, patient-centered care, Australia, Israel

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