DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION

A Roadmap To Welcoming Health Care Innovation
By Samyukta Mullangi, Said A. Ibrahim, Nigam H. Shah, and Kevin A. Schulman (11/26/19)

Health care systems across the country are struggling with their approach to innovation, which has resulted in a tremendous proliferation of pilot studies but little adoption of solutions at scale. Read More >>

ELDER CARE

Supporting The Health Of Older Adults Before, During, And After Disasters
By Sue Anne Bell, Jeffrey T. Kullgren, Erica Solway, and Preeti Malani (11/27/19)

The University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging recently explored these issues through its recurring, nationally representative survey of US older adults ages 50 to 80 years. The results identified several aspects of emergency preparation that could be improved including having discussions with older adults about their plans for evacuation with family or loved ones, maintaining a stocked emergency kit, and signing up for local emergency alert systems. Read More >>

PHARMACEUTICALS AND MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Payer Funding Of Interventional Pharmacoeconomic Studies: A New Paradigm
By Daniel A. Goldstein, Allen S. Lichter, and Mark J. Ratain (11/25/19)

We believe that the most efficient strategy to unlock this potential is to create a global consortium of health care payers to run interventional pharmacoeconomic studies.
Read More >>

PAYMENT

Surprise Bills, Benchmarks, And The Problem Of Indexation
By Daniel P. O’Neill (11/25/19)

Policy makers should be working to bring prices down, not mandating further increases for a few highly compensated services, through rigid, statutory indexation.
Read More >>

SYSTEMS OF CARE

Consolidation And Health Systems In 2018: New Data From The AHRQ Compendium
By Michael Furukawa, Laura Kimmey, David J. Jones, Rachel M. Machta, Jing Guo, and Eugene Rich (11/25/19)

Updating prior work, we examine new data from the AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems, the first publicly available database depicting attributes of the nation’s health systems. This analysis describes the landscape of health systems in 2018 and reports variation by system size, ownership type, and geographic scope. Read More >>

HEALTH AFFAIRS EVENTS–2019 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey

Wednesday, December 11, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern
Conrad Hotel – 950 New York Ave NW, Washington DC
Registration Now Open

Join us for a special event to be convened by Health Affairs and The Commonwealth Fund marking the publication of the 2019 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians in 11 Countries. Senior government officials, delivery system experts, and leading policy thinkers from around the world will gather for a high level discussion of strategies to promote high-quality primary care, with special attention to the integration of health and social care.

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REQUEST FOR ABSTRACTS–Children’s Health

Health Affairs is planning a theme issue on Children’s Health, to be published in October 2020. We thank Nemours for its generous support of this issue.

We invite all interested authors to submit abstracts for consideration for this issue. Editors will review the abstracts and, for those that best fit our vision and goals for the issue, invite authors to submit full papers for consideration for the issue.

In order to be considered, abstracts must be submitted no later than 11:59PM Eastern time, December 29, 2019. We regret that we will not be able to consider any abstracts submitted after that date. Abstracts must be submitted via our abstract submission portal—abstracts submitted via other channels will not be considered.

More information here
Preparation and formatting guidelines
Submit abstracts via our online submission form
Queries: [email protected]

IN THE JOURNAL

ETHICS

Potential Unintended Consequences Of Recent Shared Decision Making Policy Initiatives
By Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Douglas J. Opel, Neal W. Dickert, Daniel B. Kramer, Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, Keren Ladin, Monica E. Peek, Jeff Peppercorn, and Jon Tilburt

Shared decision making (SDM)—when clinicians and patients make medical decisions together—is moving swiftly from an ethical ideal toward widespread clinical implementation affecting millions of patients. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby and coauthors argue that policy initiatives to promote SDM implementation in clinical practice carry the risk of several unintended negative consequences if limitations in defining and measuring SDM are not addressed. Read More >>

QUALITY OF CARE

Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program Is Not Associated With Additional Patient Safety Improvement
By Kyle H. Sheetz, Justin B. Dimick, Michael J. Englesbe, and Andrew M. Ryan

In 2013 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it would begin levying penalties against hospitals with the highest rates of hospital-acquired conditions through the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program. Kyle Sheetz and coauthors used clinical registry data on rates of hospital-acquired conditions in 2010–18 from a large surgical collaborative in Michigan to estimate the impact of the policy. Read More >>

THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE

Changes In Physician Consolidation With The Spread Of Accountable Care Organizations
By Genevieve P. Kanter, Daniel Polsky, and Rachel M. Werner

While early evidence suggests that accountable care organizations (ACOs) are associated with higher quality and lower costs, there have been simultaneous concerns that ACOs may incentivize consolidation of physician groups. This is particularly concerning as previous research has shown that consolidation is associated with lower quality and higher prices. Using a difference-in-differences strategy and data from the Medicare Shared Savings Program, which began in 2012, Genevieve Kanter and coauthors examined whether physician practices consolidated after ACOs entered health care markets. Read More >>

The Practice Of Medicine series is supported by The Physicians Foundation.

GRANTWATCH

Funders Supporting Smoking Prevention
By Lee L. Prina

The November 2019 GrantWatch column focuses on what foundations are funding to prevent smoking and educate people about youth vaping. It highlights foundations around the country. These include Bloomberg Philanthropies, which has a $160 million initiative called Protect Kids: Fight Flavored E-Cigarettes, and the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, in El Paso, Texas, which has been encouraging adherence to the new Texas 21 Law through an awareness campaign. In key personnel news, Antony Chiang has a new job: He is the CEO of a new conversion foundation with a sizable endowment. Read More >>

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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