Health Affairs

A new Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examines trends in workplace wellness programs and the potential impact of provisions of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. About two-thirds of companies that offer health benefits to workers also provide a wellness program, such as health-risk assessments and screenings for... Read the rest of this entry »

If one were to try and identify what issue has most roiled the biomedical community in the past few months it is surely the effort to censor two papers describing genetic modifications of the H5N1 flu virus. Background.  Last December, the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) was asked by the U.S. National... Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. public health system, like its health care system cousin, is a patchwork of services, programs and regulatory authorities that is neither designed for optimal performance nor funded for sustainability and success. Those are the findings of a recent panel from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. Their report entitled “For... Read the rest of this entry »

Lung cancer screening would save thousands of lives at a relatively low cost if such tests were routinely covered by commercial insurers, according to a first-of-its-kind actuarial study in the April issue of Health Affairs. Lung cancer causes more than 150,000 deaths each year, making it the most lethal cancer in the United States. Yet... Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Jost’s analysis of the final rule on health insurance exchanges tops the most-read list for March for Health Affairs Blog. The Health Affairs article and follow-on blog post by Danny McCormick and colleagues on the effect of physicians’ access to electronic imaging and tests on further testing generated much attention and debate. And the... Read the rest of this entry »

On Thursday, April 12, Health Affairs will hold a briefing to unveil its April 2012 issue, “Issues In Cancer Care: Value, Costs & Quality.” The volume explores a range of cancer-related topics, with the centerpiece a cluster of articles on assessing the value of high-cost cancer treatments.  The cluster received funding support from Bristol-Myers Squibb;... Read the rest of this entry »

On March 16, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule regarding student health plans, an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking explaining how it intends to handle coverage of contraception services, and a notice regarding the early retiree reinsurance program.  This blog post addresses these issuances.  Separate blog posts will address... Read the rest of this entry »

According to four Harvard School of Public Health national surveys, 44 percent of all college students binge drink, and nearly 600,000 suffered injuries in 2001, many of them associated with alcohol-induced blackouts. A new study, released today as a Web First by Health Affairs, calculates that at a university with 40,000 or more students, blackout-associated... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: For more on the state of prevention efforts and the impact of the cuts to the Prevention and Public Health Fund, see Health Affairs Blog “Contributing Voices” posts by Georges Benjamin and Jeffrey Levi. The latest policy brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the Prevention and Public... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: For more on the state of prevention efforts and the impact of the cuts to the Prevention and Public Health Fund, see this Health Affairs Blog “Contributing Voices” post by Georges Benjamin and an additional post about a Health Policy Brief on the Fund. The Prevention and Public Health Fund, created by the... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: For more on the state of prevention efforts and the impact of the cuts to the Prevention and Public Health Fund, see this Health Affairs Blog “Contributing Voices” post by Jeffrey Levi and an additional post about a Health Policy Brief on the Fund. Two years ago with enactment of the Affordable Care... Read the rest of this entry »

Video of the release event for the January issue of Health Affairs, “Confronting The Growing Diabetes Crisis,” is now available on the Health Affairs Web site.

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin will keynote Health Affairs‘ release event for its January 2012 issue, “Confronting the Growing Diabetes Crisis.” The briefing will take place on Tuesday, January 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. The new Health Affairs issue will explore the challenges that the increase in... Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, January 10, Health Affairs will release its January 2012 issue, “Confronting the Growing Diabetes Crisis.” The volume explores the challenges that the increase in prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes represents for public health and health care systems in the United States and internationally. A particular focus of the issue is opportunities for diabetes... Read the rest of this entry »

Since its inception in 2003, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has saved millions of lives through providing anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS.  PEPFAR has been essential in moving overall coverage levels in African countries from near zero to a few countries reaching 80 percent coverage (e.g. Botswana) and several... Read the rest of this entry »

On World Polio Day, October 24, 2011, the Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative issued its third quarterly report.   The Independent Monitoring Board “was established at the request of the Executive Board of WHO [World Health Organization] and the World Health Assembly in 2010, to monitor the implementation and impact of... Read the rest of this entry »

Significant steps are being taken to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA) even as the challenges to its constitutionality make their way through the federal courts.  For example, the Institute of Medicine recently released its much-anticipated report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the principles and methods that should guide the design... Read the rest of this entry »

With apologies to my more creative predecessors as Health Wonk Review hosts, there’s no theme today. (After all, how could one top Alistair Cookie?) I will get right to the great posts in this week’s edition. Costs And Premiums. At Managed Care Matters, Joe Paduda explores an apparent disconnect: flat medical costs coupled with rising... Read the rest of this entry »

Prevention is critical to reducing rates of chronic disease, premature death and disability, and controlling health care costs. This point has been made many times over by health care and health policy experts both in the United States and abroad. Unfortunately, our current health care system is not set up to incentivize prevention efforts and... Read the rest of this entry »

Medicare could save up to $15 billion over the lifetimes of a group of baby boomers if the federal government  made community-based weight loss programs available to people age 60 or older who were at risk for diabetes or heart disease, according to a study in the September 2011 issue of Health Affairs. The program—potentially... Read the rest of this entry »