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Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Tse Yang Lim of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on his recent paper that explores why similar policies resulted in different COVID-19 outcomes and how responsiveness as well as culture influenced mortality rates.

Order the "Global Lessons From COVID-19" issue of Health Affairs.

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Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Cristian Herrera of The World Bank on his recent paper which sought to identify disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to routine health care services and how eight Latin American and Caribbean countries responded.

Order the "Global Lessons from COVID-19" issue of Health Affairs.

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This episode was originally published in April 2023.

Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Chip Kahn from the Federation of American Hospitals on his recent paper where he and co-authors argue that CMS hospital value-based programs should be refined to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes.

Order the August 2023 issue of Health Affairs.

Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

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This episode was originally published on July 19, 2022.

It's well known that the United States spends much more than other high-income countries on health care, the most recent estimates from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published in Health Affairs show that nearly a fifth of US GDP is spent on health care services.

It's perhaps somewhat less well known that health outcomes lag those of many other countries. Life expectancy and infant mortality rates rank well below not just other high-income countries, but many middle-income countries as well.

The combination of these two facts leads many to ask the question, "Are we getting our money's worth for all that we spend on health care?"

However, simply establishing that the US spends a lot on health care and has sub-optimal health outcomes doesn't fully answer the question.

Marcia Weaver from the University of Washington joins A Health Podyssey to discuss whether we receive value for our high levels of health spending.

Weaver and coauthors published a paper in the July 2022 of Health Affairs examining the relationship between health spending and disease burden in the United States. They reached some optimistic conclusions based on the data.

Order the July 2022 issue of Health Affairs for research on Type 2 diabetes and more.

Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

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This episode was originally published on January 10, 2023.

Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Deepak Palakshappa, associate professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine on his paper in the January 2023 issue examining the relationship between food insecurity and health care expenditures in families.

Order the January 2023 issue of Health Affairs.

Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

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This episode was originally released on January 4, 2022.

The Medicare program has placed considerable emphasis on creating accountable care organizations (ACOs), which are groups of health care providers that together take responsibility for providing necessary care and can reap financial rewards if they do so at lower than projected costs.

While the American Hospital Association reports that 56 percent of community hospitals participate in an ACO, ACOs have developed more slowly in rural than in urban areas.

Observing that not all health care providers can afford the infrastructure cost necessary to make an ACO work, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation developed the ACO Investment Model (AIM) which supports physicians, clinicians, and smaller hospitals in their formation of ACOs.

The AIM Program evaluation has some interesting lessons for those seeking to promote accountable care.

Matthew Trombley from Abt Associates joins Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil on A Health Podyssey to discuss how to support ACO creation in less populated areas.

Trombley and coauthors published a paper in the January 2022 issue of Health Affairs examining outcomes following implementation of the Medicare Shared Savings Program in 41 rural ACO investment model facilities.

They found significant savings net of program costs but also rapid exits from the program once providers were exposed to downside financial risks.

If you enjoy this interview, order the January 2022 Health Affairs issue.

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Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Joel Weissman of Brigham and Women's Hospital on his recent paper identifying how hospitals are addressing the effects of structural racism and the ways in which health equity officers have become leaders to enact change.

Order the "Tackling Structural Racism in Health" issue of Health Affairs.

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Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Zachary Dyer of University of Massachusetts on his recent paper measuring the enduring imprint of structural racism on American neighborhoods and how the authors developed a new measure, the Structural Racism Effect Index, to identify these impacts.

Order the October 2023 issue of Health Affairs on Tackling Structural Racism in Health.

Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

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Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Chidinma Ibe on her recent paper that provides a closer understanding of the value of community health workers' (CHW) voices, social risk factors, and how structural racism shapes CHWs' approach to intervention delivery in structurally vulnerable communities.

Ibe and co-authors state their findings underscore the need to embed antiracist principles in the policies and practices that affect the public health workforce.

Order the "Tackling Structural Racism in Health" issue of Health Affairs.

Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

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This is a special publication of the first season of the new Health Affairs podcast, Research and Justice For All. The first season, "Private Sector Solutions," is sponsored by CVS Health. The six-episode season will publish Wednesdays.

Guest: Rashad Burgess, Vice President of Advancing Health and Black Equity at Gilead Sciences 

CVS Health’s Sree Chaguturu and Joneigh Khaldun interview Rashad Burgess of Gilead Sciences about how private sector companies can advance health equity goals. They also discuss how Gilead is addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Black and brown communities throughout Southern states in the US.

This season is sponsored by CVS Health.

Related Links:  

• LGBTQ+ Health Is An Essential Component of Public Health Equity Efforts (Health Affairs Forefront)  
• Building Community Power To Dismantle Policy-Based Structural Inequity In Population Health (Health Affairs)  
• About the Gilead COMPASS Initiative® (Gilead)  
• Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Legislation (Health Resources & Services Administration)  

Explore the CVS Health-sponsored Health Affairs Forefront short series, “Private Sector Solutions for Health Equity.”

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