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The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs

Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Dear John,
Thanks to everyone who submitted an abstract for our Racism and Health theme issue. We received more than 300 submissions. Publication of the issue is scheduled for February 2022.
Vertical Integration & Lab and Imaging Services
Two new Considering Health Spending articles in this month’s issue found that vertical integration of physicians with hospitals increased use of hospital testing and imaging services.

Christopher Whaley and coauthors found that vertical integration of physician group practices with hospitals or health systems increases the use of hospitals for common diagnostic imaging and laboratory tests and increases Medicare reimbursement rates. The authors write, “Contrary to claims of clinical efficiencies, we also observed increased rates of testing procedures.”
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Gary Young and coauthors examined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) referrals for three common conditions. They found that “hospital employment [of physicians] was associated with a substantially greater likelihood of patients receiving MRI referrals in general, as well as—more important—inappropriate referrals,” for which the odds increased by 26 percent.

These findings add to growing discussions around consolidation, health care spending, and overuse. For more Health Affairs coverage of these topics, revisit a symposium of posts published by Health Affairs Blog titled “The New Health Care Industry—Consolidation, Integration, Competition In The Wake Of The ACA.”

Today on Health Affairs Blog, Elaine Batchlor, the CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, in response to a previously published blog post, argues that her hospital's COVID-19 patients had poorer outcomes because of their lifelong lack of access to health care.

Elevating Voices: Asian American and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month: In April 2015 Ninez A. Ponce published an article in Health Affairs that found that places with higher rates of income inequality were likely to have wider gaps between high- and low-income women in receipt of gene expression profiling for breast cancer treatment.

Today, during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, we are focusing on the stark racial/ethnic disparities in maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity in the US. In a May 2020 paper, Teresa Janevic and coauthors analyzed birth records in New York City and found that, controlling for other factors, women who live in neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of non-Hispanic Black and low-income families face the highest excess risk of severe maternal morbidity.
Your Daily Digest
Higher Medicare Spending On Imaging And Lab Services After Primary Care Physician Group Vertical Integration
Christopher M. Whaley, Xiaoxi Zhao, Michael Richards, and Cheryl L. Damberg

Hospital Employment Of Physicians In Massachusetts Is Associated With Inappropriate Diagnostic Imaging
Gary J. Young, E. David Zepeda, Stephen Flaherty, and Ngoc Thai

Symposium: The New Health Care Industry—Consolidation, Integration, Competition In The Wake Of The ACA
Abbe R. Gluck

Were COVID-19 Patients In The Wrong Hospital—Or The Wrong Community? What Really Drove COVID-19 Outcomes In South Los Angeles
Elaine Batchlor

Early Diffusion Of Gene Expression Profiling In Breast Cancer Patients Associated With Areas Of High Income Inequality
Ninez A. Ponce, Michelle Ko, Su-Ying Liang, Joanne Armstrong, Michele Toscano, Catherine Chanfreau-Coffinier, and Jennifer S. Haas

Neighborhood Racial And Economic Polarization, Hospital Of Delivery, And Severe Maternal Morbidity
Teresa Janevic, Jennifer Zeitlin, Natalia Egorova, Paul L. Hebert, Amy Balbierz, and Elizabeth A. Howell

Podcast: Understanding Private Equity Investment In Hospitals
Alan Weil and Anaeze C. Offodile II
A Health Podyssey
Understanding Private Equity Investment In Hospitals

Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview Anaeze Offodile from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on the role of private equity investments in health care.
Listen Here
Pre-order a discounted copy of the upcoming 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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