The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Dear John,
Two papers in the November issue of Health Affairs cover hospital payment and services.
Hospital Payment And Services
In
recent decades there has been a movement to reduce health care costs by shifting care delivery to less costly outpatient settings.
To reduce inappropriate inpatient billing for very short hospital stays, in 2013 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the Two-Midnight rule. The rule states that Medicare inpatient payment is appropriate only if a hospital stay is expected to
last through at least two midnights.
While the shift from inpatient to observation stays after the rule’s adoption has been previously reported, Sabrina Poon and colleagues analyze 2007–2018 data using additional methods and conclude that the shift is directly associated with the adoption of the rule; they note that the shift occurred quickly and remained steady in subsequent years.
In a second article on hospitals, Marcelo Cerullo and coauthors found that private equity acquisition of hospitals was associated with a higher probability of adding profitable hospital-based services, profitable technologies, and freestanding or satellite emergency departments.
They also found that private equity acquisition was associated with providing
services that have more recently become areas of financial opportunity.
Today on Health Affairs Blog, Katherine Ginsbach and coauthors discuss how international health regulations should be modified to improve future pandemic response.
Beth Beaudin-Seiler and coauthors introduce a new blog short series, “Enhancing Value By Evaluating Health Care Services.”
Joseph Mattingly discusses historical lessons about the politics of drug pricing reform.
Ryan Koski-Vacirca and Arjun Venkatesh describe how the Department of Health and Human Services can ensure that the No Surprises Act brings tangible changes to health care.
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Susanna Trost On Addressing Perinatal Mental Health To Curb Maternal Mortality
Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview Susanna Trost, an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on addressing perinatal mental health as a factor in maternal mortality.
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.
