The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
May 16, 2021
Dear John,
Read on for highlights from Health Affairs this week.
Disparities In COVID-19 Cases, Telehealth & More
In a paper released ahead of print, Marissa Reitsma and coauthors analyzed COVID-19 disparities in terms of structural risk exposures, testing, test positivity, and COVID-19 cases in California, the state with the most COVID-19 deaths in the country.
They found that, from March 22 through October 3, 2020, among cases with known race/ethnicity, 70 percent were among Latino people, compared with their 39.1 percent state population share. Further, death rates during that time for both Latino and Black populations were more than 1.5 times higher than those in the state’s White population.
Several May papers discuss private equity firms’ practices in health care.
In the first, Anaeze Offodile II and coauthors provide anoverview of private equity acquisitions of acute care hospitals. They found
that acquisitions occur predominantly in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern US and are more likely to be for-profit hospitals in urban areas. They also found that on average private equity–acquired hospitals had higher operating margins than non-acquired hospitals.
Robert Tyler Braun and colleagues estimated the prevalence of acquisitions and their impact on dermatology prices, spending, utilization, and volume of patients. They determined thatprivate equity acquisition leads to dermatologists seeing up to 17 percent more patients after two years and
charging more for routine visits.
In another new paper, Ameet Sarpatwari and colleagues examine pricing trends for three classes of widely used diabetes drugs. They report that monthly list prices of GLP1 agonists, DPP4 inhibitors, and SGLT2 inhibitors on average increased approximately 10 percent annually from market entry through 2017.
Aayan Patel and coauthors investigate recent trends in generic drug prices. They found that from 2014–17, one in five generic drugs had a price spike initiated by at least one manufacturer, leading to an estimated $1.5 billion in excess Medicaid spending during
2014–16.
Kyle Thomson draws attention to an under-the-radar statutory provision in the Social Security Act that will result in most Medicare
beneficiaries losing access to telehealth at the end of the current public health emergency—unless Congress acts.
Joseph Liss, David Peloquin, and Barbara Bierer call for a new licensure system, based on nursing’s successful model, that would enable physicians to practice across state borders—enabling the replacement of in-person visits with telehealth.
Breaking Down How Pharmacy Deserts And Access Relate To Health Equity Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview Jenny Guadamuz from the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy on pharmacy access and closures.
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewedjournalat 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.
