Health Affairs

Obamacare Politics: Lessons From The Kentucky Governor’s Race

Republican Matt Bevin’s dominant victory in Kentucky’s gubernatorial race is a blow for Obamacare, but is probably not as damaging as it seems. Kentucky will become a test case for what happens when a newly elected conservative comes into office after...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2015 9:33 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Politics, Featured, Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Medicaid and CHIP, Kynect, state based exchanges, Republicans, red state governors, Matt Bevin, Kentucky

Reminder: Health Affairs Briefing: Food & Health

The November 2015 issue of Health Affairs takes a comprehensive look at the complex relationships between food and health. What we eat, where we eat, how much we eat, and how we produce our food all have consequences for individual and community well...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2015 12:00 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Public Health, Elsewhere@ Health Affairs, RWJF, Food and Health

A Tale Of Two Deliveries, Or An Out-Of-Network Problem

As co-workers and first-time moms-to-be, we shared much of the pregnancy journey together — including the same employer-sponsored health insurance plan. We even delivered within weeks of each other at the same hospital. For both of us, the key to...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2015 8:30 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Employer-Sponsored Insurance, Featured, Payment Policy, Insurance and Coverage, Costs and Spending, Equity and Disparities, Affordable Care Act, pregnancy, anesthesiology, out-of-network billing

Working Toward Happier Birthdays: An Effort In California To Lower C-Section Rates

Birth is universal, and because of this fact, it is also a big health care issue. Childbirth is the number-one reason for hospitalization in the United States. The stakes are high, both healthwise and costwise. It is the only instance that begins with...

Published Mon, Nov 02 2015 4:07 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Payment, Health Care Costs, States, Quality, Hospitals, Medicaid, Patient Safety, Health Philanthropy, GrantWatch, Health Care Delivery, Payment Policy, Costs and Spending, Medicaid and CHIP, Maternal Health, California, California HealthCare Foundation, pregnancy

Health Affairs November Issue: Food And Health

The November issue of Health Affairs, released today, contains a number of articles focusing on the relationships between food and health in the United States. Some of the topics studied include policies that can encourage healthier eating, the impact...

Published Mon, Nov 02 2015 1:01 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Public Health, Quality, Children, Obesity, Elsewhere@ Health Affairs, Population Health, Featured, Costs and Spending, Medicaid and CHIP, diet, nutrition, SDH, Food and Health, poverty

Public Litigation Challenging ACA Persists, But Court Dismisses State Government Challenge

Implementing Health Reform. Although Affordable Care Act (ACA) litigation seems unending, virtually all of the ACA lawsuits brought by private individuals have now either come to an end or are in their death throes (an important exception being the contraceptive...

Published Mon, Nov 02 2015 12:28 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Supreme Court, Texas, administrative fix, West Virginia

MPTs Combine Contraception With HIV And Other STI Prevention

The world became a better place recently when world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a milestone United Nations statement that will shape world policy for the next 15 years to reduce poverty and set us on a more equitable and...

Published Mon, Nov 02 2015 10:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Public Health, Global Health, Quality, Featured, Costs and Spending, Equity and Disparities, Drugs and Medical Technology, Long-term Services and Supports, Women's Health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, family planning, sexually transmitted infections, sustainable development goals

Genetic Information Safeguards And Wellness Programs; 2016 Marketplace Coverage

Implementing Health Reform (October 29 update). On October 30, 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a proposed rule concerning the application of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) to employer wellness programs...

Published Fri, Oct 30 2015 8:04 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Costs and Spending, Equity and Disparities

Narrative Matters: Poems By Patients And Consumers

Editor’s note: This spring, Health Affairs held its first ever poetry contest. Three winning poems were published in the journal . We’re also featuring some of our other favorites on the Blog throughout the month of October. You Are A Job You forget that...

Published Thu, Oct 29 2015 11:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Narrative Matters, Elsewhere@ Health Affairs, Narrative Matters poetry, patient experience

Paying For Value In Cancer Care

Everyone wants to pay for value (and certainly not just for volume) and the value imperative is nowhere greater than in cancer care. Cancer care cost the US health care system $125 billion in 2010, accounting for 5 percent of total health care spending...

Published Thu, Oct 29 2015 9:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Primary Care, Medicare, Quality, Once In A Weil, Payment Policy, Costs and Spending, Drugs and Medical Technology, Long-term Services and Supports, Cancer, Bundled Payments, performance payments, ECRI

How Government Policy Promotes High Drug Prices

It is a bedrock principle of capitalism that as competition erodes profits on established products, enterprises will invest in innovation to earn higher profits from new products. US law governing prescription pharmaceutical markets abandons that principle...

Published Thu, Oct 29 2015 7:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Quality, Comparative Effectiveness, Featured, Payment Policy, Costs and Spending, Drugs and Medical Technology, FDA, generic drugs, 21st Century Cures Act, Prescription Drugs, Big Pharma, Hatch-Waxman Act

New ASPE Report Highlights Benefits Of Returning To The Marketplace

Implementing Health Reform. On October 28, 2015, the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) for the Department of Health and Human Services released a report on Decisions Regarding Health Plan Choices in the 2014 and 2015 Marketplaces...

Published Wed, Oct 28 2015 2:29 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Costs and Spending, open enrollment, cost-sharing reduction payments, Federally Facilitated Marketplace, Assistant Secretary for Evaluation and Planning

The Regulatory Burden Of The Priority Review Voucher Program

In a recent interview , an official from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed concern about the costs to the FDA of the priority review voucher program. The director of the Office of New Drugs said he’s worried the additional priority reviews...

Published Wed, Oct 28 2015 11:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Featured, Costs and Spending, Drugs and Medical Technology, FDA, voucher program, priority review

Seeking Policy Narratives About How Patients Use Evidence To Inform Health Decisions

The Narrative Matters section of Health Affairs is seeking personal essay submissions that touch on the topic of patient and consumer uses of evidence to inform health decisions. The journal’s April 2016 issue will examine how evidence is generated and...

Published Wed, Oct 28 2015 9:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Narrative Matters, Elsewhere@ Health Affairs, Health Policy, Health Affairs journal, consumer uses of evidence, personal stories, patient uses of evidence

Is Observation Status Substituting For Hospital Readmission?

Since October 2012, the Medicare program has penalized hospitals when too many patients in traditional Medicare are re-hospitalized within a month of discharge. This policy appears to be having unintended consequences for patients in Medicare and in the...

Published Wed, Oct 28 2015 6:55 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Medicare, Quality, Population Health, Featured, Organization and Delivery, Costs and Spending, readmissions, Veterans Hospitals, penalties

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