Dear John,

Join us this Wednesday, May 22, for our next virtual Journal Club featuring a closer look into a paper from our May issue with a focus on COVID-19 policies.

Author Christopher Hoover will discuss efforts to improve COVID-19 vaccination rates and reduce cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in prioritized communities with Leslie Erdelack.

Responding To Challenges Posed By Private Equity

Private equity (PE) ownership in health care is increasing. Between 2010 and 2020, private equity deals in health care increased from 352 to 937. 

In the May issue of Health Affairs, Christopher Cai of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Zirui Song of Harvard University provide an overview of the regulatory policy landscape for PE acquisitions in health care. 

They outline four domains for policy strengthening, and recommend that policy makers:

• lower reporting thresholds,
• increase the longer-run transparency of PE ownership,
• sstablish minimum staffing ratios and spending floors, and
• limit the amount of debt used to finance PE acquisitions.

For more on this paper, next week's episode of A Health Podyssey will feature author Christopher Cai exploring the overview of this policy landscape.

More on Nursing Homes

• Nurse Staffing Hours At Nursing Homes With High Concentrations Of Minority Residents, 2001–11 by Yue Li et al.
• Medicare Postacute Care Payment Reforms Have Potential To Improve Efficiency Of Care, But May Need Changes To Cut Costs by David C. Grabowski et al.
• A Health Podyssey: Dana Mukamel on How Widespread Dementia Is In Nursing Homes

Center For Medicare And Medicaid Innovation Should Test An Alternative Payment Model For Hospital Nursing

Olga Yakusheva and Robert Longyear

Celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Month

It is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Month, and we are proud to elevate AANHPIs who work to advance health equity and policy.

In an April 2024 Forefront article, Vinaya Gogineni and coauthors discuss the importance of Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) programs as ideal training models for enhancing access to primary care in underserved areas.