Health Affairs This Week

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The Scope of US Medical Debt Right Now w/ Kinika Young Feb 07, 2025

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Delivered weekly from David Lim, Semafor Healthcare connects the dots between decisions in government, business, and technology to reveal how they impact the future of healthcare. Each edition will provide the analysis you need to understand and stay ahead of a rapidly changing landscape. Subscribe for free.

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Kinika Young of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to the program to discuss a recent final rule/advisory issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and how this rule will impact the scope of medical debt in the US today.

Check out a recently released Health Policy brief from Nathaniel Tran and Gilbert Gonzales exploring how public debates and enactments of both pro- and anti-LGBTQI+ policies affect LGBTQI+ populations in the places where they live, learn, work, play, and age.

Also, join Health Affairs on February 25 for an exclusive Insider virtual event featuring Stacie Dusetzina and Laura Tollen discussing HHS’s announcement of the 15 additional drugs selected for Medicare drug price negotiations, including weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy.

Related Articles:

New Federal Guidance Puts Medical Debt Collectors On Notice (Health Affairs Forefront)
Consumer advisory: Pause and review your rights when you hear from a medical debt collector (CFPB)
Nearly 1 in 2 Patients with Medical Debt Feel "Trapped," New Poll from Leading Health Care Orgs Find (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society)

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Biden's Final Food & Health Policies Jan 31, 2025

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Senior Editor Ellen Bayer to the program to examine the US Food & Drug Administration's most recent work on food and nutrition policy, as well as what was done in the final days of the Biden administration and where things stand today.

Health Affairs will be releasing a theme issue focusing on Food, Nutrition, & Health in April 2025.

Next week, Health Affairs will be releasing their February 2025 issue that will feature a health policy road map for a new US administration. The papers featured in this road map have been published ahead-of-print. Order your copy today.

Related Articles:

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Health Policy at a Crossroads: Trump's First Week w/ Katie Keith Jan 24, 2025

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Deputy Editor Chris Fleming and Katie Keith of Georgetown Law to the program to discuss what to watch for in 2025 as the Trump administration takes office and what that could mean for future health policy regulations.

Katie Keith helped us kickoff a new Health Affairs Forefront series entitled Health Policy At A Crossroads. Check out the first installment.

Health Affairs also published an ahead-of-print series of papers. The Vital Directions for Health and Health Care: Priorities for 2025, features seven articles highlighting key areas for action and transformative change in US health care.

Related Articles:

Health Policy At A Crossroads: What To Watch In 2025 (Health Affairs Forefront)
Following The ACA series (Health Affairs Forefront)

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New Year, New Hospital Price Transparency Requirements Jan 17, 2025

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Senior Editor Leslie Erdelack backto the program to discuss the latest hospital price transparency requirements that began in 2025, how many hospitals are actually following these regulations, and what effect noncompliance has on consumers' access to health care.

Check out a recently released Health Policy brief from Derek Griffith and Andrew Twinamatsiko exploring the laws and policies prohibiting the discussion of what the Trump administration labeled “divisive concepts” and their impact on health equity.

And we recently unveiled a refresh to our Health Affairs Insider program. Learn more about the recent changes and how to become an Insider today!

Watch our Virtual Briefing on Uses of Health Care Price Transparency Data: Status, Innovations, & Opportunities

Related Articles:

Many hospitals still aren’t complying with price transparency rule: OIG (Healthcare Dive)
HHS: Nearly half of hospitals aren’t following CMS price transparency rule (Healthcare Brew)
Latest updates to hospital price transparency rules aim to make the data more useful (Stat News)

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The Scope of Medicare Fraud Jan 10, 2025

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Happy New Year!

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Senior Deputy Editor Rob Lott backto the program to explore Medicare fraud, how prevalent it is, who's most at risk, and what measures are being taken to protect Medicare beneficiaries.

Health Affairs just released our January 2025 issue on Medicare, Care Delivery, Medicare Advantage, and more. Order your copy today!

Also, we just released our best of 2024 retrospective lists. These include:

And we recently unveiled a refresh to our Health Affairs Insider program. Learn more about the recent changes and how to become an Insider today!

Related Articles:

Medicare Beneficiaries’ Exposure To Fraud And Abuse Perpetrators (Health Affairs)
Fiscal Year 2024 Improper Payments Fact Sheet (CMS)
Improper Payments Measurement Programs (CMS)

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Holly Jolly Health Expenditures Dec 20, 2024

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Senior Editor Leslie Erdelack backto the program to discuss the recently released 2023 health care spending report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Learn more about the report from our ahead-of-print article from Anne B. Martin and colleagues from CMS.

Last week, Health Affairs announced that Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil will leave his role at the end of the year. Read about Weil's achievements during his tenure at Health Affairs.

Related Articles:

National Health Expenditures In 2023: Faster Growth As Insurance Coverage And Utilization Increased (Health Affairs)
Beyond National Health Expenditure Data: Three Things I Wish Were Better Measured (Health Affairs Forefront)
National Health Expenditure Projections, 2023–32: Payer Trends Diverge As Pandemic-Related Policies Fade (Health Affairs)

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A Disproportionate Share: The Future of Safety Net Hospitals & Payment Policies Dec 12, 2024

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs This Week is off for a few weeks. We will return for a special episode in December before returning to our regular schedule in January 2025.

For the next few weeks, we present the three-part A Disproportionate Share, a podcast from NYC Health + Hospitals's Michael Shen, a primary care doctor and Chief Creative Officer for the medical education podcast Core IM, as part of the Health Affairs Pathwaysshow that we published in 2023. We encourage listeners to check out the other series from that podcast.

Unique series were created by fellows at the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program, designed to support early to mid-stage professionals pursue an audio project and tell a unique health care story.

In A Disproportionate Share, NYC Health + Hospitals's Michael Shen, a primary care doctor and Chief Creative Officer for the medical education podcast Core IM, explores the role of safety net hospitals in caring for America's vulnerable populations.

In the final episode, Shen discusses why supplemental payments for safety net hospitals might be at risk and look at policy approach that could bolster the safety net. He interviews individuals from NYC Health + Hospitals, America's Essential Hospitals, and University of Pennsylvania.

Related Links:

Michael Shen
Disproportionate Share Hospital (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
Variation and Changes in the Targeting of Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments (Health Affairs)
Annual Analysis of Disproportionate Share Hospital Allotment to States - 2022 (MACPAC)
For Disproportionate-Share Hospitals, Taxes and Fees Curtail Medicaid Payments (Health Affairs)

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A Disproportionate Share: A Complex Patchwork of Supplemental Payments Dec 05, 2024

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs This Week is off for a few weeks. We will return for a special episode in December before returning to our regular schedule in January 2025.

In the second episode, Shen discusses how we pay for essential care for low income patients delivered through our safety net hospitals and the complex patchwork of supplemental payments for such care. He interviews individuals from America's Essential Hospitals and NYC Health + Hospitals to explain cost-shifting, uncompensated care, payer mixes, cash on-hand, and more.

Related Links:

What Types of Hospitals Form the Safety Net? (Health Affairs)
Podcast: Understanding Private Equity Investment in Hospitals (A Health Podyssey)
Can Safety-Net Hospital Systems Redesign Themselves To Achieve Financial Viability? (Health Affairs Forefront)
Safety-Net Hospitals More Likely Than Other Hospitals To Fare Poorly Under Medicare's Value-Based Purchasing (Health Affairs)

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A Disproportionate Share: Meditations on Safety Net Hospitals & How We Pay For Them Nov 27, 2024

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs This Week is off for the next three weeks. We will return for a special episode in December before returning to our regular schedule in January 2025.

For the next three weeks, we present the three-part A Disproportionate Share, a podcast from NYC Health + Hospitals's Michael Shen, a primary care doctor and Chief Creative Officer for the medical education podcast Core IM, as part of the Health Affairs Pathwaysshow that we published in 2023. We encourage listeners to check out the other series from that podcast.

In this first episode, Shen looks at the closure of Hahnemann University Hospital, a large urban hospital affiliated with a major academic medical center, to ask how safety net hospitals sustain themselves on thin financial margins. He shares what safety net hospitals are and their role in caring for America's vulnerable populations.

Related Links:

Michael Shen
Graduate Medical Education Should Not Be A Commodity (Health Affairs)
Podcast: Graduate Medical Education Should Not Be A Commodity (Health Affairs Narrative Matters)
The Death of Hahnemann Hospital (The New Yorker)
To Protect America's Safety-Net Hospitals, Establish a New Federal Designation (Health Affairs Forefront)

Listen to the full series here.

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Medicare Shared Savings Program Mints $2B Win for Value-Based Care w/ Frank McStay Nov 22, 2024

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers is joined by Frank McStay of Duke Margolis Institute for Health Policy to discuss the results of a recent CMS report that explores the impacts of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) in 2023 and beyond.
Health Affairs’s Research and Justice For All podcast returns for its second season, focusing on drivers of health.

Bookmark Health Affairs Forefrontto keep an eye out for future articles from guest Frank McStay and colleagues.

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