The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
December 19,
2021
Dear John,
The latest Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report illustrates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on national health care spending in 2020.
In Health Affairs news, we are excited to share that we are rebranding Health Affairs Blog to Health Affairs Forefront.
What's New In Health Affairs
In an article published ahead-of-print this week, Micah Hartman and colleagues from the CMS report on national health care spending in 2020. This is the first of the annual national spending reports to reflect the impacts of the current pandemic.
The unprecedented government response to COVID-19 in 2020 resulted in a substantial increase in national health expenditures, with US health care spending increasing 9.7 percent to reach $4.1 trillion in 2020. This is significantly greater than the 4.3 percent growth rate in 2019.
“The acceleration in 2020 was due to a 36.0 percent increase in federal expenditures for health care that occurred largely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” write Hartman and colleagues. Programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program and the Provider Relief Fund saw increased funding, and there was increased public health spending and strong growth in federal Medicaid payments.
If you missed it, check out Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil’s article introducing readers to Health Affairs Forefront, the rebranded Health Affairs Blog.
The mission of Health Affairs
Forefront will stay the same: Create a space for rigorous, action-oriented insights related to health policy research, ideas, and current policy events.
All articles will be deposited into CrossRef. Health Affairs Forefront will now be indexed in Google Scholar in addition to Google and Google News.
Esther Friedman Explains Home Care and Nursing Home Workforce Changes
Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview Esther Friedman from the University of Michigan on her research investigating state level changes in the nursing home and home care workforces.
New National Health Spending Data and Introducing Health Affairs Forefront
Listen to Health Affairs' Rob Lott and Chris Fleming discuss CMS's 2020 national health care spending data, published this week by Health Affairs, and the rebrand of the Health Affairs Blog to its new digital publication Health Affairs
Forefront.
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.
