Dear John,

Happy New Year!

As we welcome 2025, we wanted to reflect on the milestones and achievements that shaped Health Affairs Scholar in 2024.

The Best Of Health Affairs Scholar 2024

As we look back on a successful year, we want to highlight the top ten most read papers published in 2024.

These papers reflect some of the timeliest issues of 2024 including contraceptive access and use in the post-Dobbs era, mapping pharmacy deserts across the country, prior authorization burdens and solutions and much more.

1. Has the Fall of Roe Changed Contraceptive Access and Use? New Research from Four US States Offers Critical Insights 
   Megan L Kavanaugh and Amy Friedrich-Karnik
   
   
2. The Evolution and Scope of Medicaid Section 1115 demonstrations to address nutrition: a US survey  
   Erika Hanson et al.
   
   
3. Return On Investments In Social Determinants Of Health Interventions: What Is The Evidence?
   Sayeh Nikpay et al.
   
   
4. Why Does The Cost Of Employer-Sponsored Coverage Keep Rising?
   Salpy Kanimian and Vivian Ho
   
   
5. Life Cycle Of Private Equity Investments In Physician Practices: An Overview Of Private Equity Exits 
   Yashaswini Singh et al.
   
   
6. Locations and Characteristics of Pharmacy Deserts in the United States: A Geospatial Study
   Rachel Wittenauer et al.
   
   
7. Perceptions Of Prior Authorization Burdens And Solutions
   Nikhil R Sahni et al.
   
   
8. Balancing Innovation And Affordability In Anti-Obesity Medications: The Role Of An Alternative Weight-Maintenance Program
   David D Kim et al.
   
   
9. Infant Mortality In Ghana: Investing In Health Care Infrastructure And Systems
   Danielle Poulin et al.
   
   
10. Physicians Working With Physician Assistants And Nurse Practitioners: Perceived Effects On Clinical Practice
    Xiaochu Hu et al.

Call For Papers & New Featured Paper Series

Among the highlights, we introduced our first Calls for Papers, focusing on the critical topics of:

• Global Aging
• Intersections of Social Policies and Health
• Policy Options for the 340B Discount Program

These ongoing series continue to invite submissions, fostering meaningful discourse on pressing policy issues.

The journal also launched its inaugural Featured Paper Series, Health Workforce Issues and Challenges in the Post-Pandemic Era, with contributions from each of the nine federally funded Health Workforce Research Centers.

Building on this momentum, three additional Featured Paper Series are set to publish in 2025, each exploring distinct, timely topics and supported by different sponsoring organizations.

The papers below kick-off two of these series, with the introduction to the third series on Emergency Room Care coming soon. 

Health And Political Economy: Building A New Common Sense In The United States 

Victor Roy et al.

Evidence To Inform Biopharmaceutical Policy: Call For Research On The Impact Of Public Policies On Investment In Drug Development 

Sandra Barbosu et al.

Scholar Expands Indexing

In addition to these exciting new initiatives, we’re pleased to share that the journal is now indexed in the Web of Science, as well as PubMed Central, The Directory of Open Access Journals and Google Scholar.

Conducting A More Equitable Community Health Needs Assessment

Shannon E. Nicks et al.

Next week, Health Affairs releases its January 2025 issue focusing on Medicare, Care Adjustment, Medicare Advantage, and more.

Check out an ahead-of-print article from Anne B. Martin and colleagues at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) exploring their 2023 health care spending report.