Dear John,

Health Affairs Scholar follows a continuous publication model, meaning articles become freely available online as "advance articles" as soon as they are ready.

On October 18, an article recently published as an advance article was cited in written testimony for a congressional Budget Committee hearing.

The paper, written by Nikhil Sahni, Pranay Gupta, Michael Peterson, and David Cutler, outlines steps to reduce administrative spending associated with financial transactions in US health care.

Health Affairs Scholar Issue 4 Highlights

Issue 4 of Health Affairs Scholar features two editor’s choice papers:

Lauren A. Taylor and coauthors explore a prominent defense of nonprofit hospitals: contract failure theory or the “signaling defense,” which suggests that people are more likely to trust nonprofits than for-profits in markets defined by large information asymmetries.

The authors find little evidence that hospitals' nonprofit status influenced Americans' decisions about where to seek care, suggesting that the value of nonprofit hospitals should not be primarily attributed to their ability to signal greater trustworthiness to the public. 

The second editor’s choice paper examines the ability of the employer-sponsored insurance system in the United States, particularly in small firms, to pay for life-altering gene therapies.

The study shows that private group insurance financing for cost-effective gene therapies is viable and competitively necessary across the labor market, regardless of group size.

However, the authors caution that continual growth of stop-loss premiums could impact the long-term resilience of the system.

Also included in this issue:

Kevin Fiscella and Ronald Epstein advocate for the adoption of a multifaceted, holistic definition of health to guide innovations in research, health care, and health equity.

A study by Jim Stimpson and Alexander Ortega reveals that 82 percent of US adult social media users perceived false or misleading health information on social media platforms.

Gary Stein and coauthors demonstrate that LGBTQ+ patients and their families often experience disrespectful or inadequate care due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

For the complete table of contents and access to the issue, visit the Health Affairs Scholar website.

Health Affairs Branded Post:

Peering Into The Crystal Ball: Seismic Shifts In Health iCare

Gary Ahlquist et al.

Sponsored by PwC

For our October issue on Tackling Structural Racism in Health, we were excited to include a Narrative Matters piece by Ryan J. Petteway.

In his poem, proc prun / roses, Petteway “engages poetry as praxis to reflect on matters of (mis)representation, procedural justice, and epistemic justice within public health knowledge production on place-based racial health inequities.”

For the Issue Briefing held on October 3, he shared his poem.

Learn more about what inspired Petteway to write this poem in an accompanying Forefront interview with the poet.

Health Affairs Branded Post:

Centering Diverse Communities In Clinical Trial Research And Engagement

Niesha Foster and Rita Carreon

Sponsored by Pfizer Multicultural Health Equity Collective

A Health Podyssey: Joel Weissman on Hospitals Addressing Racism

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.

Health Affairs This Week: Getting Personal: Racism and Health Equity

Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Vabren Watts chat about the latest developments from the health equity department at Health Affairs.

Funding Public Health: The Time To Act Is Now

J. Nadine Gracia et al.

California's Health Care Spending Target Program: Lessons From An Unlikely Coalition

Paul Markovich et al.

The AHEAD Model And The Potential To Advance Equity Through Population-Based Care

Joshua M. Liao and Amol S. Navathe

Preimplantation Polygenic Risk Score Testing Is Unvalidated And Unregulated

Eli Y. Adashi et al.

Listening Sessions Can Help CMS Become More Patient-Centered. Here’s How The Sessions Could Be More Effective

Elisabeth M. Oehrlein et al.

The Task Force’s Latest PrEP Recommendation For HIV Is Just More Of The Same

Richard Hughes IV

Addressing Perinatal Mental Health With A Diverse Workforce: A National Call To Action

Nalani Thomas et al.

Health Affairs Reads: On Our Reading List: 10 Books About Racism And Health

Jessica Bylander

How The IRA Could Delay Pharmaceutical Launches, Reduce Indications, And Chill Evidence Generation

John Michael O'Brien et al.