The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Monday, December 20, 2021
Dear John,
Several papers in the December 2021 issue focused on topics related to Medicare and Medicaid.
Medicare and Medicaid
Adam Markovitz and colleagues examined nine measures used to provide financial bonuses to
higher-quality Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Despite investments by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, evidence of the quality bonus program’s effectiveness is limited.
Comparing Medicare Advantage enrollees with a commercially insured population before and after the bonus program was implemented, researchers concluded that the program did not consistently improve plan quality or performance.
Asset tests are imposed by states to limit Medicaid coverage to people who lack resources to pay for care. Most states have not updated the dollar limit of Medicaid’s asset test since 1989, making the asset test increasingly restrictive in inflation-adjusted terms.
Noelle Cornelio and coauthors estimated how four possible changes to asset tests would affect the number of low-income seniors living in the community who would qualify for full Medicaid benefits.
Medicaid expansion has been found to improve hospital finances overall, but critical access hospitals face particular challenges and generally have low operating margins.
Paula Chatterjee and coauthors reported that these hospitals in Medicaid expansion states did not have statistically significant postexpansion increases in operating margins, staffing levels, or quality measures relative to hospitals in nonexpansion states.
Among the three models they illustrated, they found the reimbursement required to sustain research and development would range from $637 to $121,365, depending on the incidence of the resistant infection in question and the payment model.
Today in Health Affairs Forefront, Arthur Robin Williams discusses how to effectively scale lifesaving treatment for opioid use disorder, regulatory reform must address access, cost, and culture.
Enjoying our newsletter but not yet a Health Affairs subscriber? Sign up today.
New National Health Spending Data and Introducing Health Affairs Forefront
Listen to Health Affairs' Rob Lott and Chris Fleming discuss CMS' 2020 national health care spending data and the rebrand of Health Affairs Blog to a 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.
