Health Affairs This Week

Aggressive policing, or aggressive order maintenance policing, is prevalent throughout the US, negatively affecting the health of those exposed to it. Dr. Hedwig Lee, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis , along with colleagues Michael Esposito and Savannah Larimore discuss these effects in a new Health Affairs  Policy Brief . The brief is part of Health Affairs ongoing series of poli...

Last week, members of the Subcommittee on Health sent the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra a letter , urging the agency to enforce compliance for the Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule, which went into effect on January 2021. The rules requires hospitals to make available to the public a machine-readable list for all standard charges for items and services and to displa...

This week, Microsoft announced a $19-billion deal to acquire Nuance Communications , a health tech firm. It's one of the many recent merger and acquisition deals in the health care space. On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week, Jeff Byers puts on his ex-reporter hat and joins Jessica Bylander to discuss the Nuance-Microsoft deal and review a recent Kaufman Hall report that found hospital m...

In this National Public Health Week episode, Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Vabren Watts discuss the latest federal effort to address the opioid crisis.   This week, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the declaration of the opioid crisis as a public health emergency . These declarations expire every 90 days, and the agency first declared this one in 2017. Leslie and V...

It's Infrastructure Week and H.R. 3, a far-reaching piece of legislation which contains a series of drug-pricing reforms , is back. At the end of 2019, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3 but partisan disagreements prevented the bill from becoming law. Now, elements of H.R. 3 are back on the table as the Biden administration prepares its $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs package. Washingt...

March is Women's History Month. On today's Health Affairs This Week , Vabren Watts and Jessica Bylander give thanks and recognition to the women who have contributed important research and insights to the Health Affairs community. For example, Sara Rosenbaum from the George Washington University School of Public Health and colleagues published a piece on the Health Affairs Blog this week explainin...

As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues, some are hesitant to receive the shot if and when their number is called. It's upon the government and health care industry to connect targeted messaging and information to groups of individuals expressing hesitancy through trusted resources.   On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week , Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott note that, when it comes to health...

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Thursday March 11, 2021. A lot of news has covered the inclusion of the $1,400 stimulus check, but there is a lot in the bill concerning health and health care policy . For example, the American Rescue Plan offers financial incentives to states that have yet to expand Medicaid. In addition, the bill expands the eligibility for...

The COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues in the U.S. Of note, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized a new vaccine from Johnson & Johnson for emergency use. But vaccine equity is still a concern as President Joe Biden promised a COVID-19 vaccine for " every adult in America " by the end of May 2021. Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Rob Lott meet up on Health Affairs This Week to disc...

According to survey company Civiqs, 51% of Americans plan on taking a COVID-19 vaccine if and when it becomes available. As the U.S. exceeds 500,000 deaths related to COVID-19 , the Biden administration is working to deploy more than 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses as well as combat vaccine hesitancy . On Health Affairs This Week, Leslie Erdelack and Chris Fleming discuss the latest on COVID-19...

The minimum wage hasn't been raised since its last adjustment in 2009 . Now, as the federal government is drafting a COVID-19 stimulus package, it looks that gradually raising the minimum wage is on the table to be included. This week, President Joe Biden stated he supported raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. But what are the health implications for raising the minimum wage? More mon...

Early this week, Representatives Lauren Underwood, Alma Adams, Cory Booker, and members of the Black Maternal Health Caucus announced the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021 . The piece of legislation builds on existing maternal health legislation and seeks to mitigate racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes. Health Affairs editors Leslie Erdelack and Jessica Bylander brea...

Last week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to help strengthen Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act . Health Affairs editors Chris Fleming and Rob Lott join special guest and Health Affairs'  rapid response health reform expert Katie Keith to discuss what's in it and what could be implied from the new executive order. Chris, Rob, and Katie also discuss what's at stake for the ACA rega...

This week President Joe Biden released his vision for advancing racial equity . On the same day, Health Affairs released details of its new Health Equity project . To spotlight the organization's approach to the topic and project, Health Affairs published two blogs to outline the program's details. Editor-In-Chief Alan Weil outlined his view on racism and health equity , stating where there is rac...

This week, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. With a new administration comes a new staff alongside new agendas. Biden has already made history by appointing Rachel Levine, an openly transgender woman, as assistant secretary of health at HHS . Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Vabren Watts welcome the new administration with a discussion on what the Biden administ...

The news in 2021 has yet to slow down in the realm of health policy. For one, reports have found that unused COVID-19 vaccines are being thrown away , calling into question what to be done about vaccine distribution. In addition, the Trump administration recently approved a Tennessee Medicaid block grant waiver . Listen to editors Christopher Fleming and Jessica Bylander discuss the COVID-19 vacci...

Editors Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott kick off 2021 with a new episode of This Week . A lot of news was crammed into the first week of 2021. Early on, Haven, the health care organization founded by Amazon, J.P. Morgan, and Berkshire Hathaway, decided to fold after being in business for three years. The Georgia runoff election confirmed a democratic Congress for the incoming Biden Administration . A...

The COVID-19 pandemic defined the majority of the year 2020. But it wasn't the only story to follow this year, especially in the field of health policy. In a special extended episode of Health Affairs This Week ( the second of two end-of-year episodes ), Leslie Erdelack, Vabren Watts and Jessica Bylander discuss some of the stories you may have missed in health policy if you focused most of your a...

The COVID-19 pandemic defined the majority of the year 2020. But it wasn't the only story to follow this year, especially in the field of health policy. In a special extended episode of Health Affairs This Week (the first of two end-of-year episodes), Leslie Erdelack, Chris Fleming, and Rob Lott discuss some of the stories you may have missed in health policy if you focused most of your attention...

Checking in from Colorado and Baltimore, Jessica Bylander and Vabren Watts enter the snow discourse before jumping into the latest on COVID-19 vaccines. Supply chains are sending dosages. Frontline workers are receiving them. And, the Health Affairs team reminds us that we can’t ignore the importance of messaging and social distancing as COVID-19 cases rise throughout the U.S. Related Links: Clini...

Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Chris Fleming discuss why health policy is ready to enter the climate change discussion. From the latest Greta Thunberg Hulu documentary to president-elect Joe Biden's pick of John Kerry as a "climate envoy," Leslie and Chris note climate change is too big of an issue for the field to ignore.   This episode dovetails with Health Affairs first ever journal issue...

Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Rob Lott chat in the first episode of Health Affairs This Week about COVID-19, vaccine distribution, emergency use authorization for vaccines, toddlers' interpretations of masks, public health messaging, and mistrust for the healthcare industry. Related Links: A Health Podyssey: Ensuring Equitable Access to a COVID-19 Vaccine Once It's Here (Health Affairs) Cli...