The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Friday, March 26, 2021
Dear John,
Louisiana can serve as a model for states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion. A new paper
examines uncompensated care costs for hospitals in Louisiana.
Medicaid Expansion Reduced Uncompensated Care Costs At Louisiana Hospitals
On July 1, 2016, Louisiana expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to all adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Evidence suggests that Medicaid expansion leads to reductions in uncompensated care provision but few studies have examined the experience of individual states.
Expansion in Louisiana was associated with a 33 percent reduction in the share of total operating expenses attributable to uncompensated care costs for general medical and surgical hospitals, with the greatest reductions in rural and public hospitals.
“For hospitals in nonexpansion states, trends in uncompensated care costs remained relatively stable between 2015 and 2018. However, for hospitals in Louisiana, uncompensated care costs as a share of total operating expenses fell from approximately 7 percent, on average, in 2015 to just above 3 percent in 2018,” the authors find.
In the wake of recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado, we are revisiting some past Health Affairs articles about gun violence in the October 2019 issue. Colleen L. Barry and colleagues tracked public opinion on US gun laws and found increases in public support for universal background checks of handgun purchasers, stronger regulation of gun dealers, and extreme risk protection orders.
Today on Health Affairs Blog, Cornelius D. Jamison and Tammy Chang discuss how expedited partner treatment, which treats the sexual partners of people diagnosed with certain sextually transmitted infections (STIs), can help curb the rising rates of STIs. Additionally, Erin C. Fuse Brown and coauthors discuss how the recent No Surprises Act alone is unlikely to solve the issue of out-of-network air ambulance bills, a particularly pernicious form of surprise medical bill. Elevating Voices In Women’s History Month: Health economist Katherine Baicker served on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and is widely known for her work regarding the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment to expand Medicaid in that state. She is dean of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
Don’t forget to listen to our latest podcasts. On today’s episode of Health Affairs This Week, Vabren Watts and Jessica Bylander discuss Women's History Month.
Podcast: Elevating Women's Voices In Health Policy During Women's History Month
Listen to Vabren Watts and Jessica Bylander discuss Women's History Month, all the great work women have contributed to the Health Affairs community, and the latest on COVID-19 vaccines and their impact on pregnant women.
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