health policy articles
Making the Case for Addressing Health Disparities: What Drives Providers and Payers?
The creation of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health placed increased emphasis on federal efforts to address health disparities. Although the literature establishes a social justice case for addressing health disparities, there is limited evidence of this case being sufficient for businesses to invest in such initiatives. The purpose of this study was to better understand the “business case” behind an organization’s investment in health disparity reduction work.
Do Live Discharge Rates Increase as Hospices Approach Their Medicare Aggregate Payment Caps?
The rate of live discharge from hospice and the proportion of hospices exceeding their aggregate caps have both increased for the last 15 years, becoming a source of federal scrutiny.
Puerto Rico’s children need recovery funds
Hurricane Maria made landfall and caused horrific damage in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Sept. 20, 2017. The historic storm caused widespread destruction to critical infrastructure throughout these islands.
Small Change, Big Consequences — Partial Medicaid Expansions under the ACA
Though congressional efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) seem to have stalled, the Trump administration retains broad executive authority to reshape the health care landscape.
Nearly 1 In 5 Hospice Patients Discharged While Still Alive
A study published last month in the journal Health Affairs finds that hospices with the highest rate of so-called live discharges also have the highest profits. The lead author is Rachel Dolin, a David A. Winston fellow researching health policy. Her paper found an association between high live discharge rates and high profit margins, but it didn’t determine the cause….
A Positive Association Between Hospice Profit Margin And The Rate At Which Patients Are Discharged Before Death
Hospice care is designed to support patients and families through the final phase of illness and death. Yet for more than a decade, hospices have steadily increased the rate at which they discharge patients before death—a practice known as “live discharge.”
Factors Driving Live Discharge From Hospice: Provider Perspectives
The proportion of patients disenrolling from hospice before death has increased over the decade with significant variations across hospice types and regions. Such trends have raised concerns about live disenrollment’s effect on care quality. Live disenrollment may be driven by factors other than patient preference and may create discontinuities in care, disrupting ongoing patient-provider relationships. Researchers have not explored when and how providers make this decision with patients.
The Dubious Empirical and Legal Foundations of Wellness Programs
Abstract The article offers information on the dubious empirical and legal foundations of workplace wellness programs in the U.S. Topics discussed include enactment of Affordable Care Act for expanding the scope of incentives availas; analysis of financial incentives...
BOOK REVIEWS: Our Health Care Tug-of-War
Steven Brill makes some keen points about what works—and what doesn’t—in our health care system. He’s not so good on what will fix it. BY ADRIANNA MCINTYREFROM SUMMER 2015, NO. 37 America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken...