Health Affairs This Week Health Affairs

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers talks with Marianne Amoss about recent federal rulemaking activity over nursing facility staff levels and CMS' proposed mandatory kidney transplant value-based model.
Read the newly published article "Judicial Decisions Constraining Public Health Powers During COVID-19" from our upcoming Reimaging Public Health theme issue.
Related Links:
Biden-Harris Administration Acts to Improve Access to Kidney Transplants (CMS)Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting Final Rule (CMS)Disparities in Acceptance of Deceased Donor Kidneys Between the United States and France and Estimated Effects of Increased US Acceptance (JAMA Internal Medicine)

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers interviews Healthcare Dive's Rebecca Pifer to discuss the FTC's move to ban noncompete agreements.
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Related Links:
FTC votes to ban noncompetes, with far-reaching effects on doctors (Healthcare Dive)

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers and Jessica Bylander go over the demise of Walmart Health and the health of retail clinics and telemedicine.
Order the May issue of Health Affairs.
Finish the sentence: You're A Health Policy Wonk If...
Related Links:
Walmart shuttering all 51 health centers, citing lack of profitability (FierceHealthcare)The Impact of Telemedicine on Medicare Utilization, Spending, and Quality, 2019-22 (Health Affairs)Variation In Telemedicine Use And Outpatient Care During The COVID-19 Pandemic In The United States (Health Affairs)What is the cost of starting a medical practice? (Wolters Kluwer)Telehealth and COVID-19 (FAIR Health)

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers interviews Jack Hoadley from Georgetown University about the final rule for the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D programs for 2025.
Read the new Health Policy Brief on digital inclusion.
Join us for our ONC 20th anniversary event on May 9.
Finish the sentence and win an online journal subscription for a year: You're a health policy wonk if...
Become a Health Affairs Insider to read our newsletters on drug pricing, antitrust, and more.
Related Links:
Differences in Use of Services and Quality of Care in Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare, 2010 and 2017 (Health Affairs)Increased Medicare Advantage Penetration is Associated with Lower Postacute Care Use for Traditional Medicare Patients (Health Affairs)DTC Companies Double Down on Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefits (Health Affairs This Week)

This month, HHS released the final "Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters" for 2025.
This final notice sets standards and requirements for the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and health insurers. Sabrina Corlette and Jason Levitis, who both co-authored a piece about the notice in Health Affairs Forefront, join Health Affairs This Week host Jeff Byers to discuss the new standards and how the ACA marketplace has matured over the years.
Read the "ahead-of-print" article, "The Impact of Telemedicine on Medicare Utilization, Spending, and Quality, 2019-2022."
Related Links:
Final 2025 Payment Notice: Marketplace Standards and Insurance Reforms (Health Affairs Forefront)

Health Affairs This Week is back!
Host Jeff Byers interviews Brent Fulton from University of California, Berkeley about the current state of antitrust and private equity in health care.
Brent is an author of a special newsletter from Health Affairs Insider on antitrust and markets in health care. Subscribe to Insider to catch Brent's and our other Insider newsletters on drug pricing (from Stacie Dusetzina), health spending, and health equity.
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Related Links:
Private Equity-Acquired Physician Practices and Market Penetration Increased Substantially, 2012-21 (Health Affairs)