Health Affairs

A new study by Avalere Health, presented at the recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, analyzed the pharmacy claims of 10,508 commercially-insured and Medicare patients who required oral therapy for cancer. The purpose of the study was to assess the effects of cost-sharing on the abandonment of these medications. The analysis showed... Read the rest of this entry »

For those who assume that the next generation of Americans will live longer than their parents, a new “three-dimensional” method of forecasting vital health statistics shows how this may not prove to be the case. Most Americans enjoy better health today than in the past, with significant declines in death rates from the top three... Read the rest of this entry »

Health Affairs plans a thematic issue on the U.S. and global imperative to stem the growing burden of diabetes, which is among the top contributors to the international epidemic of noncommunicable disease. As part of our development process for this issue, which is scheduled to be published in early January 2012, we are issuing a... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: The federal government’s Beacon Program provides funding to 17 communities that have already made inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record (EHR) adoption and health information exchange. This is the fourth in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts in which leaders of several Beacon communities... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: The federal government’s Beacon Program provides funding to 17 communities that have already made inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record (EHR) adoption and health information exchange. This is the third in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts in which leaders of several Beacon communities... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: The federal government’s Beacon Program provides funding to 17 communities that have already made inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record (EHR) adoption and health information exchange. This is the second in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts in which leaders of several Beacon communities... Read the rest of this entry »

The latest Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examines the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Plan, a voluntary, publicly administered insurance program enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. It is designed to help people should they become disabled and need long-term services and... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a series of blog posts by Ron Klar offering suggestions on how to make the Medicare Shared Savings Program a more viable vehicle for the creation of accountable care organizations. This installment focuses on (1) the sharing model(s) for ACOs, and (2) the beneficiary issues of assignment,... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: The federal government’s Beacon Program provides funding to 17 communities that have already made inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record (EHR) adoption and health information exchange. This is the first in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts in which leaders of several Beacon communities... Read the rest of this entry »

Poor childhood health caused by environmental factors, such as air pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals, cost the United States $76.6 billion in 2008, according to a new study in the May issue of Health Affairs. This price tag represents a dramatic increase,  from 2.8 percent of total health care costs in 1997 to 3.5... Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow, on Wednesday,  May 4, Health Affairs will hold a Washington D.C. briefing in connection with its first ever issue on environmental health. National environmental health and policy experts will discuss the state of environmental health and its future, and will present new research in the field. The briefing and Health Affairs issue on environmental... Read the rest of this entry »

The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) has grabbed the limelight as a new model of health care that offers an alternative to fragmented, impersonal and wasteful care that has become the norm throughout much of the U.S.  The PCMH model promises each patient a primary care provider leading an interdisciplinary care team, with the intent of... Read the rest of this entry »

Some debates about health care policy represent black and white choices. But others are a more nuanced shade of grey: the new proposals could turn out well, or not so well, depending on how they are implemented. One such reform getting broad-based attention is the creation of Medicare Accountable Care Organizations, or “ACOs,” which are... Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama has begun his campaign for re-election in 2012.  Several Republicans have declared their intention to consider the possibility of running.   Meanwhile, implementation of health care reform proceeds slowly, with threats of defunding and legal action scuttling alongside to keep up.  Policy debates about accountable care organizations, medical homes, and other attempts to bring... Read the rest of this entry »

For decades, the Medicaid program has experienced periodic threats as federal policymakers have proposed to make major budget cuts, create state block grants, split up the program and so on.   In addition, every several years, some state officials announce they are about to pull out of the program (though none has ever done so).  Medicaid... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts examining the proposed rule implementing the Medicare Shared Savings Program, issued March 31 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. You can read subsequent posts by Douglas Hastings, Steven Lieberman, and Ron Klar. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services... Read the rest of this entry »

With the federal government poised to propose rules governing accountable care organizations, a broad array of public and private health care stakeholders has laid out a consensus on how to use ACOs and patient-centered medical homes to move toward the “triple aim” of better health, better care, and lower costs. The report, Better to Best:... Read the rest of this entry »

In the eyes of some, health reform  threatens to burn down the old house of the American health system before it has built the country a new one.  There are many who will not mourn the passing of the old, but it is fair to say that most health care leaders are extremely anxious to... Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most contentious issues in drafting health reform legislation was the tax treatment of health care expenses.  From modifying the tax exclusion for employer-provided health coverage to imposing new fees on medical treatments and products, resistance to changing health tax policy underscored the immense difficulty of enacting reforms without a broad political consensus.... Read the rest of this entry »

Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government was handed an unprecedented set of tools to forge innovation in health care delivery through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Now, as the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation begins its work, the goal is to achieve the vaunted “Triple Aim” of improving individuals’ experience of... Read the rest of this entry »