A Health Podyssey

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews John Scott of the University of Washington about his recent paper exploring findings on the financial fallout from traumatic injurie s, highlighting persistent medical debt burdens and the policy gaps that leave many patients unprotected. Order the February 2026 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and w...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Sayeh Nikpay of the University of Minnesota about her recent paper exploring how The Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and the 340B Program interact in ways that can unintentionally increase costs, the adoption of cost-saving strategies to mitigate these interactions, and how policymakers can act to balance Medicaid savings with revenue impacts on 340B-participating...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Roslyn Murray of Brown University to discuss her paper exploring how Oregon’s 2019 hospital payment cap saved $50 million annually while having little impact on hospital finances, operations, or patient care. Order the December 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way....

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Sherry Glied of New York University on her paper that explores how U.S. health spending growth slowed to less than half its historical rate, driven by lower utilization, slower price growth, and shifts in care delivery and administration. Order the January 2026 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we...

Health Affairs ' Senior Deputy Editor Rob Lott interviews J. Michael McWilliams of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital on his recent paper that explores opportunities for the use of patient health survey data for risk adjustment to limit distortionary coding incentives in Medicare. Order the January 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content i...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Steven M. Lieberman of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles on his recent paper that explores how Medicare Advantage has seen significant enrollment growth and what reform efforts can be attempted to rebalance traditional Medicare and MA. Order the August 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely avail...

Health Affairs ' Senior Deputy Editor Rob Lott interviews Zirui Song of Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital on his recent paper that explores how private equity acquisition impacts hospital costs and utilization and what variations were seen throughout 2005–19. Order the February 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - a...

Health Affairs ' Senior Deputy Editor Rob Lott interviews Don Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement about his paper as part of the Vital Directions for Health and Health Care: Priorities for 2025 package that proposes strategies for how health care in the US could be transformed . Order the February 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is free...

Health Affairs ' Senior Deputy Editor Rob Lott interviews Eric Topol , Executive Vice President of Scripps Research , on his new book, Super Agers , which provides an evidence-based approach on extending healthy lifespans. Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support , we can continue to keep our digital publication Foref...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Tiffany Lemon of Arizona State University on her recent paper exploring the concept of job-lock as it pertains to employer-sponsored health insurance and its impacts on adult physical and mental health. Order the November 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With y...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Dan Arnold of Brown University to discuss his recent paper exploring higher payments within UnitedHealth’s Optum network , which found UHC Paid Optum providers more than non-Optum Providers using price transparency data. Order the November 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep i...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Matthew Rae , Associate Director of the Health Care Marketplace Program at KFF , about his recent paper exploring the findings from the KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey, reporting on benefits in 2025. Order the November 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Michael T. Osterholm , the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) , about the future of U.S. public health, the politicization of vaccine oversight, and why fragmented state guidance threatens pandemic preparedness. He also discusses his new book, The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics . Currently, more...

In this episode, Rob Lott interviews Jennifer Kao of the UCLA Anderson School of Management in front of a live audience about her paper in the October 2025 issue of Health Affairs exploring the impact of risk evaluation and mitigation strategies on generic approvals of US pharmaceutical products. Order the October 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is fre...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Matthew Maughan of Brown University about his paper exploring how commercial insurers paid more for procedures at hospital outpatient departments as compared to ambulatory surgical centers. Order the October 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support ,...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Alexander Soltoff of Emory University about his recent paper exploring how private equity-owned hospices reported higher profits and lower patient care spending when compared to other ownership models. Order the October 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With you...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Tris Dyson , Founder of Challenge Works on his efforts in cultivating challenge prizes as an opportunity to nurture innovation in science and health care, the newly launched Longitude Prize on ALS, the transformation of drug discovery, and more. Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your sup...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Stephen Crystal of Rutgers University about his recent paper exploring how states with substantial increases in buprenorphine uptake as an opioid use disorder treatment response grew alongside increased Medicaid prescribing from 2018–24. Order the September 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and w...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Elizabeth Van Nostrand of Temple University about her recent paper exploring how Indiana adults participating in treatment court program tended to have better health outcomes than individuals who applied and were accepted but chose not to participate. Order the September 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely ava...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Aimee Moulin of the University of California Davis about her recent paper exploring a model for low-barrier treatment of opioid use disorder that could increase emergency department patient navigation and Buprenorphine use. Order the September 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to ke...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Nora Volkow , director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health , to discuss addiction as a brain disorder, treatments for opioid use disorder, and what’s next in addiction research. Order the September 2025 issue of Health Affairs , which focuses on insights on the opioid crisis. Currently, more than 70 percent of our...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Brendan Saloner of Brown University about his recent paper exploring how scaling up opioid treatment and harm reduction programs could reach more people. Order the September 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support , we can continue to keep our digita...

On August 12, A Health Podyssey 's Rob Lott chatted with Kenton Johnston of Washington University about his paper in the August 2025 edition of Health Affairs that explores  changes in clinician's participation across Medicare value-based payment models . Order the August 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it th...

Health Affairs ' Rob Lott interviews Cal Chengqi Fang of the University of Chicago about his recent paper that explores how pay gaps grew between nonprofit hospital CEOs and employees from 2009–23. Order the August 2025 issue of Health Affairs . Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support , we can continue to keep our di...

Health Affairs' Rob Lott interviews Jonathan Perlin of The Joint Commission about the origins of this commission, the impacts made on health care through quality improvement and patient safety, the role of accreditation, the public policy levers that drive change, and more. Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support , w...