Without a healthy planet, we cannot have a healthy humanity. Every April is Earth Month, an opportunity to reflect on the deep and profound connection between the health of our planet and our own well-being. Our existence is dependent on the web of life that surrounds us. It is our responsibility to nurture and protect… Read More »
I am a health economist, trained to make sense of messy data. I generally work amidst a sea of numbers. But I’ve found that seeking out stories in health services research–those of doctors and patients–can help me anchor what’s truly important in research. These stories may also help researchers communicate the value of their work… Read More »
How patients are seeing their doctor is changing, and that could shape access to and quality of care for decades to come. More than 100 million Americans don’t have regular access to primary care, a number that has nearly doubled since 2014. Yet demand for primary care is up, spurred partly by record enrollment in… Read More »
It’s been 4 years this month since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. Where are we now? It’s time to take stock of the real impact of the pandemic. Aside from the burden of illness and mortality, the mental health toll, and the strains on the healthcare system, COVID even… Read More »
If the US healthcare industry were its own country, it would be in the top 10% of all countries in greenhouse gas emissions. Welcome to the February, 2024 edition of the Healthy Intersections Podcast! This month, we sit down with David Introcaso, PhD, to discuss the healthcare industry’s carbon footprint. Dr. Introcaso is the host… Read More »
In January, the Medical Care Blog’s editors published a consensus statement on climate policy and health. This statement was co-signed by many of our authors, editors, and editorial board members of the Medical Care journal. As we look ahead to our focus theme for 2024, we want to begin with a look backward as well.… Read More »
A special supplemental issue of Medical Care supports the growing recognition that patient economic outcomes matter in health care. Sponsored by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the issue highlights studies that explore the relationship between economic outcomes, patient care, health outcomes and equity. Patient-centered… Read More »
The social determinants of health (SDOH), the conditions in which we are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age, have a significant impact on health outcomes. Research shows that a whopping 80-90% of health outcomes are dependent on SDOH factors, while medical care only accounts for about 10-20%. New clinical-community partnerships designed to address… Read More »
January 2024 Edition Hello, and welcome to the Healthy Intersections Podcast, hosted here at The Medical Care Blog. We’re kicking off a year of climate action here on the podcast and blog. For our first episode of 2024, we interview Dr. Imari Walker-Franklin, a research chemist at RTI International, science communicator, and the co-author of… Read More »
It was the tweet heard around the healthcare world. In 2018, after the American College of Physicians had published their position paper advocating gun control as a public health imperative, the National Rifle Association posted a tweet starting: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” Clinicians immediately began posting images and… Read More »
Medicare for All is Not Happening… 10 years from now will we have Medicare Advantage for All? Grandmother and granddaughter in the same health plan? Others have written that the US should achieve universal health insurance coverage, better health outcomes, and lower costs via comprehensive programs such as “Medicare for All”, as proposed by Senator… Read More »
From The Medical Care Blog: A special consensus statement on climate change and public health In 2021, more than 250 of the world’s leading medical and public health journals released a joint statement about climate change and public health. Published simultaneously, editorial boards of the journals declared climate change to be the “greatest threat” to… Read More »
This is the final post of 2023 here at The Medical Care Blog. To toast the year behind us we’ve compiled the year’s top 10 blog posts and highlighted some of the many milestones for our contributors and editorial team. Once again, we want to recognize YOU–our amazing readers and contributors. Since our founding in… Read More »
In this post, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected frequencies of diagnoses and claims costs in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces in 2020 and 2021. The ACA marketplaces are critical sources of coverage for millions of Americans and were increasingly so during the COVID-19 pandemic due to job losses and coverage disruptions. The… Read More »
This month’s podcast focuses on structural racism. Welcome to the Healthy Intersections podcast for November, 2023. This month’s podcast focuses on structural racism in the United States. Joining us to talk about the new Structural Racism Effect Index (SREI) is Dr. Zach Dyer, lead author on the analysis. Check out the dashboard at SREIndex.com and… Read More »
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has gone from a deadly infection to a manageable health condition in the last thirty years. Today, we have medications available that can treat those with HIV and prevent HIV in uninfected people. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PrEP, is a medication given to individuals without HIV to keep them from… Read More »
California just took a significant step toward single payer health care. On Oct 7, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 770 (Unified Health Care Financing) into law. Introduced by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the law directs the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency to research, develop and pursue a waiver framework… Read More »
This month’s topic focuses on suicide and social determinants of health (SDoH) Welcome to the Healthy Intersections podcast for October, 2023. Today’s podcast focuses on the links between suicide and social determinants of health in the United States. Suicide is one of the causes of deaths of despair, along with deaths from drugs and alcohol.… Read More »
The postpartum period, recognized as the fourth trimester or the 12 weeks after birth, is often overlooked. In 2021, 52% of all maternal deaths occurred during the postpartum period. And mental health was the top underlying cause, accounting for 23% of all deaths (mostly suicides and overdoses related to substance use disorder). More than 60%… Read More »
Representation matters to health. Improving pathways into health care and public health is an important way to increase workforce diversity. This is a crucial step in reducing health disparities and advancing health equity in the U.S. Black, Latinx, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities face higher rates of chronic and life-threatening health conditions. Yet… Read More »
Happy fall! This month’s Healthy Intersections Podcast focuses on food and climate — a timely topic during the fall harvest months. Food insecurity and food quality are known as important social determinants of health. For example, the percent of residents receiving food assistance (eg, SNAP) is associated with neighborhood life expectancy. On the other hand,… Read More »
What if there was a public health problem so big that even public health leaders were too enmeshed in its grip to be able to warn against its perils? I worry that we are in that very conundrum with regard to our relationship with technology. It has accelerated from being part of our world to… Read More »
This entry was one of the winners of our Summer 2023 student blog contest! Trends in Life Expectancy The recent decline in life expectancy in the United States is largely attributed to the well-known COVID-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic. However, these recent crises are not the sole drivers of the stagnation and subsequent drop in… Read More »
This entry was one of the winners of our Summer 2023 student blog contest! Anti-LGBTQ laws are flooding the United States. As of June, a historic 491 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in 2023 – a 203% increase from the entire 2022 year. More bills were introduced in the first three months of 2023 than… Read More »
Known as the fourth trimester of care, postpartum care has become unaffordable for many women. The costs of care are increasing, due to rising deductibles, increasing chronic diseases, and a lack of access to Medicaid. While postpartum care technically refers to the 12-week period after delivery, there is a movement to recognize that adequate postpartum… Read More »
Hi everyone! We’re excited to share the August edition of our Healthy Intersections Podcast with you. This month, we hosted Dr. Amanda Onwuka, a social epidemiologist and health services researcher at RTI International, as well as Jeremy Ney, author of American Inequality. We talk about the epidemic of drug overdose deaths in the US, mental… Read More »
The ACA marketplaces continue to be an important source of health insurance for millions of Americans. Achieving health equity for these enrollees may require more than simply providing coverage. The number of individuals who selected a Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace plan increased from 8 million [PDF] in 2014 to 16 million [PDF] in 2023.… Read More »
When Mark Finney moved to southwestern Virginia with his young family a decade ago, there were different hospital systems and a range of independent doctors to choose from. But when his knee started aching in late 2020, he discovered that Ballad Health was the only game in town: He went to his longtime primary care… Read More »
A special dispatch from AcademyHealth’s Annual Research Meeting in Seattle, June 2023 This post recaps a panel discussion focused on Measuring Impact of Policy Strategies on Health Equity. I was fortunate to be among the panelists. My talk focused on 7 common mistakes when conducting evaluation and health equity-focused research. In this post, I share… Read More »
Welcome to the July 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we talk about the state of Florida with Lauren Pierce, who formerly worked at the Florida Department of Public Health and is a long-term resident of Tallahassee. We debut the brand new RTI Rarity™ interactive national dashboard and focus on northern Florida,… Read More »
Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center announced its newest alternative payment model for primary care, Making Care Primary (MCP). MCP builds upon lessons learned from previous CMS primary care models: the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative, the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) initiative, the Maryland Primary Care Program, and Primary… Read More »
Over the past 25 years, significant strides have been made in shifting services for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to home and community settings. Home and community-based services (HCBS) enable people with various forms of dementia to receive care in a familiar setting while promoting their independence, well-being, and overall quality of life. As… Read More »
Public health saved your life today, but you probably didn’t know it. That was one of the valuable take-home messages from Dr. Leana Wen, when she spoke to public health students and early career professionals at California State University Los Angeles. Dr. Wen was the culminating speaker in our semester-long series on public health leadership.… Read More »
Welcome to the June 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we sit down again with Carol Schmitt, Chief Scientist at RTI International, along with Juliet Sheridan, to talk about another of the RTI Rarity interactive state maps. This time, we are looking at North Carolina. We talk about historical redlining, climate change,… Read More »
See yourself as a leader. That is one of the key messages from Jackie Valenzuela, Chief Advisor to the County Health Officer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. She has held multiple leadership positions within the one of nation’s largest public health departments. And she recounts coming to them by being open… Read More »
Don’t wait to lead. That is a key message from Dr. Chris Chanyasulkit, the president of the American Public Health Association (APHA). And it resonates with many students and early career professionals anxious to make a change. Our conversation with Dr. Chanyasulkit was the first in a series on public health leadership. The Department of… Read More »
Over the next month, The Medical Care Blog will feature a new series of posts on public health leadership. The goal is to help better prepare public health students and early career professionals for the many leadership challenges that await. Public health has a problem Whether it is COVID-19, drug overdoses or gun deaths, the… Read More »
Welcome to the May, 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we sit down again with Carol Schmitt, Chief Scientist at RTI International, to talk about another of the RTI Rarity interactive state maps. This time, we are looking at Oklahoma. You can watch the episode, download the audio file, and read the… Read More »
The pandemic public health emergency declaration ends today in the United States. Here, I share a look back and what to expect going forward. One thing is clear: with this change in designation, the U.S. has revealed that its public health preparedness was always meant to be temporary. Where we started It was December 12,… Read More »
Now more than ever, we need students engaged in improving healthcare access, delivery, and quality. The Medical Care Blog is committed to elevating student voices on these and other public health topics. To encourage excellent student blog posts, we are sponsoring a blogging competition with the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association. Our first… Read More »
The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underserved communities underscored the need for systemic change and renewed efforts to reduce health disparities in people with social risks. This post describes a partnership between Inovalon and Humana to develop a new health equity composite quality measure to identify disadvantaged populations with the largest care disparities and determine… Read More »
Primary care in the US is segregated by racial/ethnic identification. What are the implications? Most people in the US are aware that our neighborhoods are often highly segregated by race and ethnicity. Racism — historical and current, structural and individual — plays a role in neighborhood demographics. The same forces also result in segregated workplaces,… Read More »
Originally published April 6, 2023; updated April 24, 2023 to add audio links. Welcome! April 2023 marks a new milestone for the Healthy Intersections Podcast (HIP), sponsored by the American Public Health Association’s Medical Care Section. I’m taking on the role of the main producer of HIP. We’re also moving to a video AND audio… Read More »
Pain was widely under-treated in the 1980s. Two decades ago, pain was recognized as an important problem that needed to be managed by healthcare providers. Today, the opioid crisis has led to under-treatment once again. Professional recognition of pain as a symptom that needs managing was the eventual outcome of several decades of research. Again… Read More »
The rapid transition from in-person to care to telemedicine visits at the start of the COVID‑19 pandemic did not adversely affect the quality of care – and even improved some aspects of care – for patients with major depression in a major integrated health system, according to a new report. The study appears as part of… Read More »
This month’s podcast features a review of last month’s blog posts, a preview of what is begin published in the April issue of the journal and an interview with Dr. Daniel Harris, whose recent paper discusses the use of antipsychotics in nursing homes. Listen here or via your favorite podcast platform.
Medicare Advantage should be making news. It’s not because the Medicare trust fund continues to run on fumes, which it does. Nor is it because Medicare was taken “off the table” in recent debates about cutting the federal budget, which it was. Rather, it should be getting a lot of attention for new data about its… Read More »
Public health has preached a lot of things in the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has promoted social distancing, masks, vaccines, and quarantine to help prevent the spread. And it has helped spread awareness about antivirals for people infected with COVID-19. But what about “social fitnessing”? This is the premise that the… Read More »
This month’s podcast features a round-up of this month’s blog posts and a summary of three articles recently published in the journal Medical Care. Listen here or via your favorite podcast platform! Transcript Hello friends. Welcome to the Healthy Intersections Podcast for February 2023. This podcast is sponsored by the American Public Health Association’s Medical… Read More »
An Opportunity to Get Ahead of the Overdose Crisis For many Americans, drug use ‘prevention’ conjures memories of early public health campaigns using fearsome imagery and catchy slogans to deter substance use. Campaigns implored youth to “just say no” to drugs, and the public received stark warnings: “this is your brain on drugs.”