Tradeoffs

One organization turns to a game to get employees to debate and decide together what health care they most value.  Guests: Paul Fronstin, Ph. D., Director, Health Benefits Research, Employee Benefits Research Institute  Jeanette Janota, Senior Research Associate, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Tavril Saint Jean, Senior Research Associate, American Speech-Language-Hearing As...

A handful of states allow terminally ill people to take life-ending medications prescribed by a doctor instead of waiting for death. This week, we talk with journalist Steven Petrow about his sister’s choice to use medical aid in dying. Guest: Steven Petrow , Journalist and author Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter fea...

In The Fifth Branch , Tradeoffs explored new ways to respond to people in a mental health crisis, this week we have look at another area of the mental health crisis the country is grappling with. 'Lost Patients', a new podcast from KUOW and The Seattle Times, dives into why so many people with mental illness live on the streets, and lack long-term care. Heidi Aurand has watched her son Adam spiral...

The Inflation Reduction Act gave Medicare historic new power to directly negotiate the prices of some of the costliest prescription drugs. Now the federal agency must grapple with a difficult question: What makes a drug price fair? This week, we revisit our 2023 episode explaining how this negotiation process works and the impact it could have. Guests: Anton Avanceña , PhD, Assistant Professor of...

Companies claim they can catch cancer sooner with new blood tests and full-body MRI scans. What are the risks and benefits? Guest: Ishani Ganguli , MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; primary care physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the late...

Alternative response teams are being asked to tackle vexing problems: mental illness, homelessness, addiction. How much can they actually do? We explore how Durham grapples with connecting people to long-term care and support, and where the city draws the line between crisis response and social services. Guests: Ryan Smith , Director, Durham Community Safety Department Sammetta Cutler , Peer Suppo...

How do you keep everyone safe? We look at HEART’s impact on the safety of Durham residents in crisis, the mental health workers responding, and the police. Guests: David Prater , Peer Support Specialist, Durham Department of Community Safety Ryan Smith , Director, Durham Department of Community Safety Yolanda, Durham resident Sgt. Dan Leeder , Durham Police Department Patrice Andrews , Police Chie...

How do you convince police officers that it makes sense to send unarmed mental health workers to some 911 calls? Guests: Patrice Andrews , Police Chief, Durham Police Department Ryan Smith , Director, Durham Department of Community Safety Sgt. Dan Leeder , Durham Police Department Abena Bediako , Clinical Manager, Durham Department of Community Safety Christie Thompson , Staff Writer, The Marshall...

EMS, Fire, Police and the 911 Call Center make up the existing four branches of the public safety system. A special series from Tradeoffs and The Marshall Project explores how a city radically changes its response to people in crisis, by creating a fifth branch.  Nearly half of the country’s 50 largest cities - including San Francisco, New York, Houston, Chicago - have launched programs to se...

In this special bonus episode, we break down the Supreme Court’s recent abortion rulings with help from health reporter Shefali Luthra. Guest: Shefali Luthra , Health Reporter, The 19th Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health policy research and news. Support this type of journalism today, with a...

Medicare is betting that taking care of the caregiver will help dementia patients stay at home longer. Patients and their caregivers are often left to navigate the confusing world of dementia by themselves, but Medicare is launching a new program to change that. Guests: Malaz Boustani, MD, PhD , Founding Director, Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation; Professor of Aging Research,...

One out of every four Medicare patients in the hospital is the victim of a medical error. Over the past 20 years, a growing number of hospitals have adopted practices that discuss medical mistakes and offer support to the people who must cope with the often tragic consequences. We examine why experts are calling on the Biden Administration to make patient safety a national priority. &nbs...

Employers are facing a big dilemma: how do they pay for the new highly effective and popular obesity medications without breaking the bank? This week, the questions are forcing companies to re-examine their attitudes on obesity as the understanding of the disease deepens. Guests: Sean Scanlon , Connecticut Comptroller Jeff Levin-Scherz , WTW population health leader Mike Thompson , President of th...

A group of nurses in Baltimore wants to bring basic care to every person in a neighborhood regardless of age, health, income or insurance. Can this idea from abroad take root in the United States? Guests: Dawn Alley , PhD, Head of Scale, IMPaCT Care Asaf Bitton , MD, MPH, Executive Director, Ariadne Labs Regina Hammond, Founder, Rebuild Johnston Square Neighborhood Organization Chris Koller , Pres...

As Congress figures out the future of telehealth, we get a reality check from a top researcher about what this care has and has not delivered.  Guest: Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, Professor, Brown University School of Public Health Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health policy research and news...

Just like the rest of us, when clinicians are short on time and overwhelmed by complex decisions, their brains look for corners to cut, numbers to round, patterns to repeat. This week, Dan talks with Harvard physician and economist Bapu Jena about the surprising impact these mental shortcuts can have on our health care. Guest: Bapu Jena , MD, PhD, Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical S...

While stories of private equity firms running amok in health care are easy to find, new research paints a more nuanced picture. Guests: Ambar La Forgia , PhD, Professor of Management of Organizations, Berkeley Haas School of Business Rachel Werner , MD, PhD, Executive Director, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania Yashaswini Singh, PhD, Professor of Health Servic...

A major new study throws cold water on a popular approach to relieving medical debt, but leading experts say the research also reveals a promising path forward. Guests: Henry Harrell , MD, Physician  Neale Mahoney , PhD, Professor of Economics, Stanford University Allison Sesso , President and CEO, Undue Medical Debt Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Subscribe to our week...

One advocate’s vision for the crucial role patients must play in the future of health care AI. Andrea Downing , President and Co-Founder, The Light Collective Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Subscribe to our weekly newsletter . Follow us on X , LinkedIn and Youtube .  Email us at info@tradeoffs.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some patients’ lives are so complicated by trauma, poverty and other social problems that routine conditions like diabetes and asthma regularly turn into $10,000 hospital visits. America’s health care leaders have spent years trying to help this small but costly group of patients. What have they learned? Guests: Jeff Brenner , MD, CEO, The Jewish Board Arthur Brown, Client, Camden Coalition Amy Fi...

One doctor debates whether to work for the nation's largest insurance company after it purchased the independent practice she worked for in Oregon. Guest: Gwen O'Keefe, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, OHSU Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Subscribe to our weekly newsletter . Follow us on X , LinkedIn and Youtube...

As lawmakers around the country take aim at transgender rights, we dig into findings from the largest survey ever of trans Americans. Guest: Sandy E. James , JD, PhD, Lead Researcher, 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Subscribe to our weekly newsletter . Follow us on X , LinkedIn and Youtube .  Email us at info@tradeoffs.org. Hosted on Acast....

Girls in the U.S. are in the midst of a growing mental health crisis, and schools are on the front line of finding solutions. But will Black and Latina girls get left behind? Guests: Monica Bhatt , PhD, Senior Research Director, University of Chicago Education Lab Sheretta Butler-Barnes , PhD, Professor, Washington University Kathleen Ethier , PhD, Director, CDC Division of Adolescent and School H...

Patients are now mostly protected from surprise bills, but doctors and insurers are still fighting about the prices.  Guest: Benjamin Chartock, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Bentley University Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Subscribe to our weekly newsletter . Follow us on X , LinkedIn and Youtube .  Email us at info@tradeoffs.org. Hosted on Acast. See ac...

As adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities strive to live more freely and fully than ever before, many of America’s doctors, hospitals and insurers are getting in the way. We get an inside look at one doctor’s quest to improve health care for people with conditions like Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. Guests: Alison Barkoff , JD, Administration for Community Living, HHS K...