AcademyHealth Blog

Welcome to the AcademyHealth blog, together with our members, we promote interaction across the health research and policy arenas by bringing together a broad spectrum of players to share their perspectives. Here we offer important perspectives from people passionate about expanding access to care, reducing costs and improving quality, as well as updates on AcademyHealth activities relevant to the community.

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Three Points to Consider as Adoption of Alternative Payment Models Grows

Cheryl Austein Casnoff and Mary Wheatley of MITRE, an AcademyHealth organization affiliate, explore challenges in value-based payment model adoption in response to AcademyHealth’s recent 2020 National Health Policy Conference.

Posted Feb 28, 2020 By Cheryl Austein Casnoff, Mary Wheatley, M.S.

Topics Paying for Care Costs & Payments

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AcademyHealth Staff Highlight Medicaid’s Response to the Maternal Mortality Crisis

In a Health Affairs blog post, Susan Kennedy and Sunita Krishnan of AcademyHealth outline Medicaid’s pivotal role in providing maternal health services and highlight state efforts that go beyond access to care to address maternal health.

Posted Feb 27, 2020 By Lauren Adams, M.A.

Topics Health Equity Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid Quality Improvement

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How States Can Leverage School Nurses to Improve Children’s Immunization Rates

Research shows that school nurses play an important role in combating declining immunization rates amongst children.

Posted Feb 19, 2020 By Sunita Krishnan, M.P.H., Allison Squires, FAAN, Ph.D., RN

Topics Delivering Better Care Public & Population Health

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How Much Is Too Much: Out-Of-Pocket Spending Among Medicare Beneficiaries

Guest authors from AcademyHealth organizational affiliate, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, discuss findings from a recent survey.

Posted Feb 13, 2020 By Wyatt Koma, Juliette Cubanski, Tricia Neuman, Anthony Damico

Topics Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid Access to Care Costs & Payments

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Inaugural Health Data Impact Award Honors Work on Patients’ Rights to Access Personal Health Data

Award winner Deven McGraw guided the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ efforts to engage technology developers and patients with transparent and effective regulatory frameworks for the use of health data.

Posted Feb 11, 2020 By Lauren Adams, M.A.

Topics Patient & Consumer Engagement Using Health Data Data Sharing Health Datapalooza

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Recognizing and Uplifting the Legitimacy of Patient Experts for Better Health Data Tools and Policies

In this final post in a series, ePatient and Security Researcher Andrea Downing highlights where we need to build professional skills and lower barriers for patient experts to be part of a team in health care.

Posted Feb 9, 2020 By Andrea Downing

Topics Patient & Consumer Engagement Using Health Data Health Datapalooza National Health Policy Conference

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How Telemedicine Can Solve the U.S. Rural Health Crisis

Health Datapalooza speakers Alisahah Cole and Patrice Walker emphasize the need for policymakers, payers, and internet service providers to work together to ensure that rural communities have the opportunity to achieve health equity through high-speed internet access.

Posted Feb 5, 2020 By Alisahah Cole, M.D., Patrice Walker, M.D.

Topics Delivering Better Care Access to Care Health Datapalooza National Health Policy Conference

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States Work to both Adopt and Suspend Medicaid Waiver Demonstrations

Substance Use Disorder continues to be a focus of waiver activity in the states as research provides insights on what’s working and what’s not in Medicaid innovation. Meanwhile, work requirement policies are being both suspended and increased across various states.

Posted Feb 4, 2020

Topics Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid Access to Care

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Bridging Clinical and Research to Action and Impact

In this fourth post in a series leading up to Health Datapalooza and the National Health Policy Conference, Rasu Shrestha highlights ways clinicians and researchers can move their findings faster into policy, health systems and tech development.

Posted Jan 31, 2020 By Rasu Shrestha, M.D., M.B.A.

Topics Using Health Data Hospitals & Health Systems Health Datapalooza National Health Policy Conference

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States Experiment with Cross State Comparison to Evaluate Medicaid Waivers for Substance Use Disorder Services

Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia employed several innovative evaluation strategies to conduct cross-state comparisons for insights around both the impact and implementation of 1115 waivers.

Posted Jan 30, 2020 By Peter Cunningham, PhD, Cynthia Woodcock, M.B.A., Nathan Pauly, Ph.D.

Topics Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid Access to Care