When Mark Finney moved to southwestern Virginia with his young family a decade ago, there were different hospital systems and a range of independent doctors to choose from. But when his knee started aching in late 2020, he discovered that Ballad Health was the only game in town: He went to his longtime primary care… Read More »
A special dispatch from AcademyHealth’s Annual Research Meeting in Seattle, June 2023 This post recaps a panel discussion focused on Measuring Impact of Policy Strategies on Health Equity. I was fortunate to be among the panelists. My talk focused on 7 common mistakes when conducting evaluation and health equity-focused research. In this post, I share… Read More »
Welcome to the July 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we talk about the state of Florida with Lauren Pierce, who formerly worked at the Florida Department of Public Health and is a long-term resident of Tallahassee. We debut the brand new RTI Rarity™ interactive national dashboard and focus on northern Florida,… Read More »
Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center announced its newest alternative payment model for primary care, Making Care Primary (MCP). MCP builds upon lessons learned from previous CMS primary care models: the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative, the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) initiative, the Maryland Primary Care Program, and Primary… Read More »
The way we’re addressing substance use and overdoses in the United States isn’t working. Let’s be perfectly clear: the “war on drugs” isn’t, and never was, really a war on drugs. It’s been a war waged on communities who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The war on drugs started well before President… Read More »
Over the past 25 years, significant strides have been made in shifting services for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to home and community settings. Home and community-based services (HCBS) enable people with various forms of dementia to receive care in a familiar setting while promoting their independence, well-being, and overall quality of life. As… Read More »
Public health saved your life today, but you probably didn’t know it. That was one of the valuable take-home messages from Dr. Leana Wen, when she spoke to public health students and early career professionals at California State University Los Angeles. Dr. Wen was the culminating speaker in our semester-long series on public health leadership.… Read More »
Welcome to the June 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we sit down again with Carol Schmitt, Chief Scientist at RTI International, along with Juliet Sheridan, to talk about another of the RTI Rarity interactive state maps. This time, we are looking at North Carolina. We talk about historical redlining, climate change,… Read More »
See yourself as a leader. That is one of the key messages from Jackie Valenzuela, Chief Advisor to the County Health Officer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. She has held multiple leadership positions within the one of nation’s largest public health departments. And she recounts coming to them by being open… Read More »
Don’t wait to lead. That is a key message from Dr. Chris Chanyasulkit, the president of the American Public Health Association (APHA). And it resonates with many students and early career professionals anxious to make a change. Our conversation with Dr. Chanyasulkit was the first in a series on public health leadership. The Department of… Read More »
Racial justice reframing is the process of shifting our attention from individual choices to the many structural and societal factors that contribute to health inequities. This framing allows us to picture a world where values of equity, shared responsibility, and community care are paramount. We see a world where everyone – regardless of their identities… Read More »
Over the next month, The Medical Care Blog will feature a new series of posts on public health leadership. The goal is to help better prepare public health students and early career professionals for the many leadership challenges that await. Public health has a problem Whether it is COVID-19, drug overdoses or gun deaths, the… Read More »
Welcome to the May, 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we sit down again with Carol Schmitt, Chief Scientist at RTI International, to talk about another of the RTI Rarity interactive state maps. This time, we are looking at Oklahoma. You can watch the episode, download the audio file, and read the… Read More »
The pandemic public health emergency declaration ends today in the United States. Here, I share a look back and what to expect going forward. One thing is clear: with this change in designation, the U.S. has revealed that its public health preparedness was always meant to be temporary. Where we started It was December 12,… Read More »
Now more than ever, we need students engaged in improving healthcare access, delivery, and quality. The Medical Care Blog is committed to elevating student voices on these and other public health topics. To encourage excellent student blog posts, we are sponsoring a blogging competition with the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association. Our first… Read More »
“Access for the sake of access or inclusion is not necessarily liberatory, but access done in the service of love, justice, connection, and community is liberatory and has the power to transform.” – Mia Mingus, community organizer, disability and transformative justice advocate Are you designing with equity and inclusion in mind? For public health and… Read More »
The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underserved communities underscored the need for systemic change and renewed efforts to reduce health disparities in people with social risks. This post describes a partnership between Inovalon and Humana to develop a new health equity composite quality measure to identify disadvantaged populations with the largest care disparities and determine… Read More »
Primary care in the US is segregated by racial/ethnic identification. What are the implications? Most people in the US are aware that our neighborhoods are often highly segregated by race and ethnicity. Racism — historical and current, structural and individual — plays a role in neighborhood demographics. The same forces also result in segregated workplaces,… Read More »
Originally published April 6, 2023; updated April 24, 2023 to add audio links. Welcome! April 2023 marks a new milestone for the Healthy Intersections Podcast (HIP), sponsored by the American Public Health Association’s Medical Care Section. I’m taking on the role of the main producer of HIP. We’re also moving to a video AND audio… Read More »
Pain was widely under-treated in the 1980s. Two decades ago, pain was recognized as an important problem that needed to be managed by healthcare providers. Today, the opioid crisis has led to under-treatment once again. Professional recognition of pain as a symptom that needs managing was the eventual outcome of several decades of research. Again… Read More »
The rapid transition from in-person to care to telemedicine visits at the start of the COVID‑19 pandemic did not adversely affect the quality of care – and even improved some aspects of care – for patients with major depression in a major integrated health system, according to a new report. The study appears as part of… Read More »
This month’s podcast features a review of last month’s blog posts, a preview of what is begin published in the April issue of the journal and an interview with Dr. Daniel Harris, whose recent paper discusses the use of antipsychotics in nursing homes. Listen here or via your favorite podcast platform.
Eli Lilly & Co.’s announcement that it is slashing prices for its major insulin products could make life easier for some diabetes patients while easing pressure on Big Pharma. It also casts light on the profiteering methods of the drug industry’s price mediators — the pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs — at a time when… Read More »
Medicare Advantage should be making news. It’s not because the Medicare trust fund continues to run on fumes, which it does. Nor is it because Medicare was taken “off the table” in recent debates about cutting the federal budget, which it was. Rather, it should be getting a lot of attention for new data about its… Read More »
Public health has preached a lot of things in the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has promoted social distancing, masks, vaccines, and quarantine to help prevent the spread. And it has helped spread awareness about antivirals for people infected with COVID-19. But what about “social fitnessing”? This is the premise that the… Read More »
This month’s podcast features a round-up of this month’s blog posts and a summary of three articles recently published in the journal Medical Care. Listen here or via your favorite podcast platform! Transcript Hello friends. Welcome to the Healthy Intersections Podcast for February 2023. This podcast is sponsored by the American Public Health Association’s Medical… Read More »
An Opportunity to Get Ahead of the Overdose Crisis For many Americans, drug use ‘prevention’ conjures memories of early public health campaigns using fearsome imagery and catchy slogans to deter substance use. Campaigns implored youth to “just say no” to drugs, and the public received stark warnings: “this is your brain on drugs.”
This month’s podcast features a round-up of this month’s blog posts and an interview with Sungchul Park of Drexel University about his recent Medical Care paper on Medicare Advantage Star Ratings and disparities in ambulatory care sensitive hospitalizations. Listen here or via your favorite podcast platform! Transcript (partial): Hello listeners, and welcome to the Healthy… Read More »
It isn’t what supporters of single-payer health care might prefer. But a Medicaid-for-all program, based on the already expansive safety-net program, might open new doors to universal coverage. And rising familiarity with the program is creating a window of opportunity. My realization began with several conversations First, it was a friend going through a divorce… Read More »
To address calls for improving health equity, organizations could consider using CLAS Standards to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In recent years, health organization leaders have prioritized the need to address systemic inequities. A 2021 survey of health care organizations identified health equity as a top priority [pdf]. This focus has grown since the… Read More »
Community-based clinicians sometimes see patients who have been recently released from immigration detention. Those encounters can be challenging, especially when patients reveal health harms experienced while in detention. It is obviously critical that clinicians provide high-quality medical care and address any health issues potentially brought about or exacerbated by their detention history. But do they… Read More »
Dear readers, it’s been awhile since we published a “top posts of the year” roundup! In fact, we haven’t published one since 2018. So, as we wrap another eventful year of blogging at the intersection of public health and medicine, our holiday gift to you is here! Oh – and we’re still one of the… Read More »
Patient experience surveys are a cornerstone of public reporting and pay-for-performance initiatives. Some healthcare providers, payers, and other stakeholders have expressed concerns about declining response rates and representativeness of these surveys [pdf], especially for underserved groups. Increasing response rates is an important goal. Several strategies have been proposed to increase response rates, including administering surveys… Read More »
In this month’s podcast, co-editor Jess Williams recaps blog posts from November and talks about some December journal articles. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Transcription Welcome back to Healthy Intersections, the podcast of themedicalcareblog.com. In this month’s episode, I’ll review some of our blog entries from November and give you a preview… Read More »
Telehealth–the ability for providers to care for patients using computers, tablets, or smartphones–has the potential to expand access to healthcare by allowing people to interact with providers remotely. However, there are disparities in access to the technology that makes it possible to use telehealth. For example, in analyzing Census data on availability of widely used… Read More »
Better care coordination may improve access to primary care for people who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Recent evaluations of the Financial Alignment Initiative (FAI)–an initiative incentivizing the financial alignment of Medicare and Medicaid–suggests care coordination could improve access to primary care services for some dually eligible beneficiaries. Care coordination alone, however, may… Read More »
It is more important than ever to expand access to a broad range of safe and effective contraceptives that includes long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods. We are living in a new era in the US. As of early November, 2022, abortions are banned from the point of conception in 12 states and severely restricted in… Read More »
In this month’s podcast, Dr. Samy Anand gives an overview of The Medical Care Blog posts published in October and a preview of the journal articles in the November issue of Medical Care. Then, co-editor of the blog, Dr. Gregory Stevens, discusses the results of the midterm election and the results of ballot measures relevant to… Read More »
It’s that time of year again–APHA’s Annual Meeting! This year we’ll be meeting in Boston Nov. 6-9 with a digital event Nov. 14-16. I’m looking forward to seeing colleagues this year and getting to catch up with so many interesting people. Of course, I’m also excited about the excellent Medical Care Section Program. Here’s a… Read More »
The 2022 midterm elections are upon us. And public health is once again prominent on the ballot. Think back to the 2020 presidential election and just how stark a contrast Joe Biden and Donald Trump presented on COVID-19, climate change, and the Affordable Care Act. This year is no different. Voters across the country are choosing… Read More »
A recent JAMA article noted that only one-third of new drug approvals through the accelerated approval process by the FDA in the US or the conditional marketing authorization in the EU have shown therapeutic value. Many of these drugs are high cost, and this begs the question if we are spending our health care dollars appropriately. … Read More »
Over the last 25 years, researchers have documented the broad impact of behavioral interventions on a range of psychological and physical health outcomes. Despite the promise of evidence-based treatments, a common challenge for practitioners is ensuring treatment adherence to maximize benefits. This is especially challenging for most chronic conditions. Integrating research and recommendations from medication… Read More »
In this month’s podcast, Dr. Samy Anand gives an overview of the Medical Care Blog posts published in September and a preview of the journal articles in the October issue of Medical Care. Then, co-editor of the blog, Dr. Lisa Lines, discusses an article in the October issue in more detail. Below is a transcript… Read More »
As California settles into a third year of pandemic, covid-19 continues to pose a serious threat of death. But the number of people dying — and the demographics of those falling victim — has shifted notably from the first two years. Given the collective immunity people have garnered through a combination of mass vaccination and… Read More »
The Medicaid Outcomes Distributed Research Network (MODRN) was started by AcademyHealth and is a collaborative research network of state Medicaid agencies and university partners. The goal of the network is to allow analysis and learning about Medicaid by facilitating comparison across states and aggregate data with a shorter lag time than other available sources. This… Read More »
On this month’s episode of the Health Intersections Podcast, Samy Anand from the Medical Care Section recaps last month’s blog posts and previews September’s issue of the Medical Care journal. Check out these great reads. Next, Jess Williams, co-editor of the blog and podcast, interviews Dr. Cheryl Conner who is a Clinical Associate Professor at… Read More »
The pursuit of health equity requires public health and medical professionals to become adept at policy in their health advocacy work. The American Public Health Association (APHA), in fact, defines policy work as one of its 10 essential public health services. APHA says professionals should be capable of “creating, championing and implementing policies, plans and laws”.… Read More »
In 2026, Medicare will negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers. It is a dramatic reversal of a stranglehold placed on Medicare back in 2003. And it may be one of the most impactful policy changes to the government program since its creation. But there is a catch…we have to wait. President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction… Read More »
Summer is winding down, school is back in session, and The Medical Care Blog is preparing for a return. We are doing a little final housecleaning and can’t wait to return to your inboxes shortly.
Today we continue our retrospective series with a look at articles on COVID published at The Medical Care Blog. As the U.S. approaches three full years with the pandemic, it continues to see roughly 100,000 diagnosed cases (and about 400 deaths) per day. This is a level of sickness that many other developed countries see… Read More »