Access to care is a complex topic that includes the study of whether sufficient health care resources exist to meet people’s needs, as well as whether people experience physical, financial or other barriers to those services. Evidence in this area can span from whether a rural community has enough specialists, like cardiologists, to whether people in an urban community have transportation or language barriers that make seeing health care providers more difficult.
America’s children are getting sicker, with chronic and mental health conditions on the rise, trends worsened by the pandemic and felt most by underserved communities. Schools have become critical hubs for care, supported in part by Medicaid. In this three-part series, we’ll explore school Medicaid’s role and what’s at stake as policy changes, including H.R.1, threaten its future.
Medicare Advantage insurers made nearly 53 million prior authorization decisions in 2024, roughly 145,000 every day. Now, federal rules, bipartisan legislation, state laws, and a voluntary insurer pledge are all moving to reform the process. But while the reforms focus on how prior authorization works, the bigger question gets less attention: does it work?
Your product works. So why isn't it scaling? Health data products don't usually fail because the technology is bad. They fail because implementation was treated as an afterthought. This free guide explains what's actually going wrong and what a decades-old research discipline says about fixing it.
In an unprecedented move raising urgent concerns about the future of preventive care in the United States, the leadership of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has been removed, threatening the independent, evidence-based process that ensures millions of Americans can access life-saving screenings and services at no cost.
Medicaid work requirements set by HR 1 take effect on January 1, 2027, with exceptions for beneficiaries considered medically frail. A recent JAMA Health Forum paper authored by Medicaid Medical Directors outlines crucial clinical considerations for states implementing these exemptions.
Access to health care data has increased markedly, driven by federal requirements for hospital price transparency and publicly reported quality metrics. However, transparency by itself, while essential, is insufficient to empower patients.
The quality of scientific evidence is closely tied to the quality of our connections. AcademyHealth President and CEO Aaron Carroll highlights the importance of strengthening data partnerships, especially as health care and health policy challenges become more urgent.
Representative, accessible, and transparent data is key to improving health outcomes. As our Health Data for Action program enters its concluding year, we are exploring lessons learned and highlight some of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in a three-part blog series.
Researchers from Planned Parenthood investigated the experiences of people traveling for abortion care from states with abortion restrictions or bans to Illinois, where abortion is legal, after Dobbs.
With the ACA premium tax credits expiring, some policymakers are proposing broadening access to health savings accounts (HSAs) as a fix-all to consumers’ health care affordability concerns, despite evidence to the contrary.