Tradeoffs

More than $50 billion in opioid settlement dollars from drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies is starting to flow to state and local governments and they need to figure out how to spend it.

Guests: 

Dave Baker, Minnesota State Representative and chair of the state’s Opioid Epidemic Response Advisory Council 

Sara Whaley, Opioid Policy Researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health @saraewhaley

Learn more and read a full transcript on our website.

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Black Americans are at higher risk for many serious illnesses like dementia and kidney failure. But data show they are less likely to have their pain treated and less likely to access services like hospice and palliative care that can reduce suffering, especially at the end of life.

This week, we explore what stops seriously ill Black patients and their families from getting the care they want in life and in death.

Guests:

Deborah Brunson, PhD, Caregiver and Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Karen Bullock, PhD, LCSW, Professor, Boston College School of Social Work

Learn more and read a full transcript on our website.

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Even though more Americans than ever have health insurance, medical debt is a pervasive problem in the United States.

Guests: 

Noam Levey, Senior Correspondent, Kaiser Health News

Wesley Yin, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics, UCLA

Learn more and read a full transcript on our website.

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An overhaul of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit will lower costs for seniors while changing incentives for insurers and drugmakers.

Guests

Therese Humphrey Ball, Multiple sclerosis patient and advocate.

Juliette Cubanski, Deputy Director for Program on Medicare Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Learn more and read a full transcript on our website.

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There’s a severe shortage of people to care for older Americans in their homes and nursing facilities. And it’s only expected to get worse. Could providing long-term care workers with new career pathways be part of the solution?

Guests: 

Serena Maria, Manager of Care Teams, Homebridge

Mark Burns, Executive Director, Homebridge

Natasha Bryant, Senior Director of Workforce Research and Strategy, LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass Boston 

Jonathan Gruber, PhD, Ford Professor of Economics, MIT

Learn more and read a full transcript on our website.

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Early in the pandemic, state officials unleashed a flood of emergency orders relaxing the rules that limit the care each health profession can provide. Now these temporary measures are expiring and health professionals from pharmacists to physician assistants are jockeying to shape the next wave of workforce reforms.

Guests: 

Susanna Storeng, DMSc, PA-C, Physician Assistant, High Plains Community Health Center

Bianca Frogner, PhD, Professor and Director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington

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Starting Oct. 6, providers must begin giving patients electronic access to more of their health care data than ever before. But the federal regulations forcing this change are fraught with implementation challenges and privacy risks.

This week we talk with Micky Tripathi, the federal official overseeing this push to democratize America’s health data, about its promise and perils.

Guest

Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Initial screenings for breast, lung and cervical cancer are free, but expensive secondary tests can leave patients in screening purgatory.

Guests: 

Mark Fendrick, MD, Professor of Medicine and public health at the University of Michigan, Director of the Center for Value Based Insurance Design.

Gloria Coronado, PhD, epidemiologist and health disparities researcher, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research

Learn more and read a full transcript on our website.

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California is in the early days of one of the most ambitious initiatives ever to address Medicaid patients’ social needs in hopes of improving their health. This week, we trace the origins, early results and challenges of “CalAIM.”

Guests:

Jacey Cooper, Director, California Medicaid Program

Bradley Gilbert, MD, MPP, Former Chief Medical Officer and CEO, Inland Empire Health Plan

Lacy McClellan

Dale Stout

Anthony Wright, Executive Director, Health Access California

Paula Lantz, PhD, James B. Hudak Professor of Health Policy, University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Learn more and read a full transcript on our website.

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This week, we’re sharing the first episode of a new 10-part series from The Nocturnists podcast, called “Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest.” 

What is shame? And how does it manifest in medical culture? The Nocturnists teams up with two shame experts to investigate these questions.

Read a full transcript of this episode on our website.

Learn more about this episode and the Shame in Medicine series at https://www.thenocturnists-shame.org/.

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