Health Policy Updates: April 22 2018
For the last several years, the state of Maryland has imposed a global budget to reduce hospital spending. Each hospital is given an annual budget that it may not exceed. How could such a system NOT be...
View ArticleHealth Policy Updates: April 28 2018
A recent report in NEJM highlighting a potential, troubling trend in US public health. During the (also troubling) 2-year trend of decreasing life expectancy, there is an early signal of worsening...
View ArticleHealth Policy Updates: May 5 2018
After the post-ACA drop in the number of uninsured Americans, this number appears to again be on the rise: “Signs point to further erosion of insurance coverage in 2019: the repeal of the individual...
View ArticleHealth Policy Updates: May 12 2018
Donald Trump delivered a long-awaited proposal on lowering drug prices this week. The full text of the blueprint can be found here. Its not unmanageable in terms of length, but the NYTimes has...
View ArticleHealth Policy Updates: May 27 2018
The Trump Administration recently delivered its long-awaited “blueprint” on lowering drug prices. The plan was met with some skepticism from health policy and drug pricing experts regarding how much of...
View ArticleHealth Policy Updates: June 5 2018
Virginia decided this week to expand Medicaid under the ACA. Individuals up to the 138% of the FPL will be eligible; this is estimated to help 400,000 low-income Virginians. At the recommendation of...
View ArticleHealth Policy Updates: June 10 2018
New research getting talked about this week, on the impact of academic medical centers on patient outcomes. A group at Harvard including Laura Burke, Austin Frakt, and Ashish Jha found improved patient...
View ArticleWonkology into the future
Dear Readers – For those of you who read this regularly, you have probably noticed that I’ve been getting spotty with my weekly posts for the first time. I’ve been noticing this too. I’ve been busy...
View ArticleGeographic variation in end-of-life spending in oncology
The title of this recent article caught my eye, so I figured it was time to make good on my resolution to start using The Wonkologist to take deeper dives into important new health policy papers. The...
View ArticleCMS 2019 proposal for “site neutral” payments
CMS proposed a significant change to how it reimburses providers this week. The changes are being described as moving towards “site neutrality” of reimbursement within Medicare. Currently, Medicare...
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