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.

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."

The Q&A will be hosted by Health Equity Director Vabren Watts and Senior Editor Jessica Bylander.

Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
Place: 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.

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.

Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.

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