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The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
April 18, 2021
Dear John,
Read on for highlights from Health Affairs this week.
The American Rescue Plan Act, Urgent Care & More
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In this month's edition of Eye On Health Reform
,
Katie Keith explains the ways the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) builds
on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), enrollment trends in states that use
HealthCare.gov , current ACA litigation, and ACA
guidance from the Biden administration.
Alon Bergman and coauthors compared the rate, magnitude, nature, and
targeting of payments from the device and drug industries to a
comprehensive sample of physicians, across and within specialties.
They discovered that, relative to pharmaceutical companies, "device
firms paid larger amounts to fewer physicians." The authors documented
$3.62 billion in payments to physicians by medical device companies
from 2014 to 2017.
Utsha G. Khatri and coauthors studied the impact of Medicaid expansion
on the use of medication
to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) and found that, among people referred
to treatment by the criminal justice system, use of OUD medications rose
by 165 percent in states that expanded coverage. Still, this segment of
the population remained "substantially less likely to receive
medications for OUD as part of the treatment plan when compared with
those referred through all other sources."
Using national commercial claims data from 2010 to 2017, Nora Becker and
coauthors studied use of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) by
reproductive-age women with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs). They
found that after the ACA's implementation, women enrolled in HDHPs
increased their use of LARC by 35 percent more
than women in non-HDHPs did.
In a new article in our Considering Health Spending
series, Bill Wang and
coauthors analyzed commercial claims data to examine the system costs
associated with urgent care centers. They found that although the entry
of urgent care deterred lower-acuity emergency department (ED) visits,
the impact was small, estimating that thirty-seven additional urgent
care center visits were associated with a reduction of a single
lower-acuity ED visit
.
On the final day of Black Maternal Health Week, Joia A. Crear-Perry and
coauthors wrote on Health Affairs Blog that respectful maternal care can
improve provider-patient relations and improve outcomes for Black people
who give birth
.
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Urgent Care Centers Cost More Than You Think
Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview the
University of Pennsylvania's Ari Friedman on research that shows why
urgent care clinics increased net health care spending.
Listen Here
Featured Journal Articles
EYE ON HEALTH REFORM: The American Rescue Plan Expands The ACA
Katie Keith
Medical Device Firm Payments To Physicians Exceed What Drug Companies
Pay Physicians, Target Surgical Specialists
Alon Bergman, Matthew Grennan, and Ashley Swanson
Medicaid Expansion Increased Medications For Opioid Use Disorder Among
Adults Referred By Criminal Justice Agencies
Utsha G. Khatri, Benjamin A. Howell, and Tyler N. A. Winkelman
ACA Mandate Led To Substantial Increase In Contraceptive Use Among Women
Enrolled In High-Deductible Health Plans
Nora V. Becker, Nancy L. Keating, and Lydia E. Pace
Urgent Care Centers Deter Some Emergency Department Visits But, On Net,
Increase Spending
Bill Wang, Ateev Mehrotra, and Ari B. Friedman
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Request For Abstracts Q&A:
Racism And Health
Health Affairs is planning an upcoming issue on Racism and Health, with
an emphasis on structural racism. To be published in February 2022, it
will feature original research, analyses, commentaries, and personal
narrative. The deadline to submit abstracts
,
May 3, is fast approaching.
If you are thinking about submitting an abstract
,
join us next week for an informal, online Q&A session,
**"Tips for Navigating our Request for Abstracts (RFA) Process."Â **
T
**he Q&A will be hosted by Health Equity Director Vabren Watts and
Senior Editor Jessica Bylander.**
Date: Â Â Â Â Thursday, April 22, 2021
**Time:Â Â Â **1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. ET
**Place: Â Â Â **Online (meeting details will be emailed in advance)
Presenters to include:
Arturo Vargas Bustamante, Associate Professor of Health Policy and
Management at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, and recent
theme issue adviser for
**Health Affairs**, will share his thoughts on what makes a successful
abstract and his advice for someone hoping to publish in
**Health Affairs.**
Please note: We encourage papers that represent cross-disciplinary
efforts that bridge health and nonhealth sectors. In addition, we are
seeking contributions from junior faculty; authors with lived experience
of racism, including nonacademic community members; and authors from
Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving
Institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and Asian American and
Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions.
**Health Affairs** thanks the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the
Episcopal Health Foundation for their generous support of this issue.
 RSVP
On The Blog This Week
What's A Syndemic? Hepatitis C Among Injection Drug Users Is An Urgent
Example
Ronald O. Valdiserri
Reversing Hospital Consolidation: The Promise Of Physician-Owned
Hospitals
Brian J. Miller, Robert E. Moffit, James Ficke, Joseph Marine, and Jesse
Ehrenfeld
Guidance On Tax Credit Reconciliation, COBRA Subsidies Under American
Rescue Plan
Katie Keith
Fixing Nursing Homes: A Fleeting Opportunity
Robert G. Kramer
Modernizing Long-Term Services And Supports And Valuing The Caregiver
Workforce
Tyler Cromer, Allison Rizer, Henry Claypool, and Anne Tumlinson
To Advance Health Equity, Federal Policy Makers Should Build On Lessons
From State Medicaid Experiments
Sophia Tripoli, Eliot Fishman, Amber Hewitt, Emmett Ruff, and Cary
Sanders
To Improve Competition In Generic Drug Markets, The FDA Should Discount
User Fees For Small Players
Margaret M. Dotzel, Richard G. Frank, Thomas G. McGuire, Ian Nason, and
William B. Schultz
Uneven Rollout Of COVID-19 Vaccinations In United States Prisons
Meghan Peterson, Forrest Behne, Beza Denget, Kathryn Nowotny, and Lauren
Brinkley-Rubinstein
Respectful Maternity Care: Shifting Medical Education And Practice
Toward An Anti-Racist Framework
Joia A. Crear-Perry, Carmen Green, and Kiara Cruz
In Digital Health, Partnerships Between Business And Academia Are Needed
To Advance Health Equity
Courtney Lyles, Ivor Horn, and Urmimala Sarkar
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What's The Deal With Hospital Mergers?
Listen to Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Jeff Byers talk about the
latest data on hospital mergers and why Microsoft is acquiring the
health tech firm Nuance Communications.
Listen Here
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About Health Affairs
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal
at the intersection of health,
health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal
is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found
through healthaffairs.org , Health Affairs Today
, and Health Affairs Sunday
Update . Â
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health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has
published Health Affairs since 1981.
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