Dear John,

We're excited to announce the continuation of our Forefront Series "Provider Prices in the Commercial Sector," and we have reissued our call for submissions.

Learn more below!

The November issue of Health Affairs Scholar features a joint editorial on climate change and its impact on biodiversity from the UK Health Alliance by Kamran Abbasi and colleagues.

Published by more than 200 journals ahead of the 28th Conference of the Parties on climate change, the article calls on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to tackle the public health impact of climate change and the loss of biodiversity as a single crisis. 

November’s Editor’s Choice paper by Stephen Petterson offers a robust critique of the Neighborhood Atlas Deprivation Index (ADI), a measure widely used in determining eligibility for national payment programs.

The author draws on two papers recently published in Health Affairs on the subject, backing claims that ADI benchmarks may not effectively capture the health care needs that exist in certain neighborhoods.

Petterson notes the crux of the issue lies in the Neighborhood Atlas researchers' choice to not standardize variables before computing ADI scores, inadvertently giving greater weight to just two variables—median home value and median income. 

Also included in the Issue: 

Health Affairs Scholar Associate Editor Sayeh Nikpay and Lucas Halvorson and colleagues explore the expanding role of third-party administrator markets in the increasingly complex 340B ecosystem. 

A study by Paul J. Joudrey et al. illustrates how expanding the pool of providers authorized to prescribe methadone would increase accessibility and allow greater workforce flexibility to meet community needs, particularly in rural areas. 

Sugy Choi and coauthors' review of National Institutes of Health-funded projects reveals a paucity of research focused on substance use disorders among Asian American populations, emphasizing the need for increased research efforts and resources to facilitate opportunities for prevention and intervention. 

Health Affairs Branded Post:

Advancing Equity in Health Care Facilities and Delivery

Niesha Foster and Walter Conwell

Sponsored by Pfizer Multicultural Health Equity Collective

Building Trust For Change: Lessons On Stakeholder Engagement From California’s Integrated Care Models

Sasha Hulsey et al.

Arriving At A Fair Price In The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program: Considerations From Other Countries

John K. Lin et al.

Braidwood v Becerra’s Vaccine Access Threat

Richard Hughes IV et al.

The Role Of Emergency Medical Services In Pre-Hospital Diagnostic Delays

Jasmine Essa and Caitlin Kohl

Florida’s Medicaid Unwinding Lacks Fundamental Safeguards And Can Harm Population Health

Leighton Ku et al.

Understanding The History Of Group Purchasing Organizations And Pharmacy Benefit Managers

Kevin A. Schulman

Medicare Negotiation And Innovation: A Response To O’Brien And Co-Authors

Anna Kaltenboeck

Health Policy 2023 Wrapped

Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott take cues from Spotify Wrapped to look back to the most important headlines from the first eleven months of 2023.

Throughout December, join us for the following events:

• December 5: Issue Briefing: Global Lessons From COVID-19
• December 13: Lunch and Learn: The Global Impacts of PEPFAR and Consequences of Deprioritization
• December 19: Journal Club: “Substantial Disparities In COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake And Unmet Immunization Demand In Low- And Middle-Income Countries”

Today, we’re pleased to announce the continuation of our Forefront Series “Provider Prices in the Commercial Sector.” This series features analysis and discussion of physician, hospital, and other health care provider prices in the private-sector markets and their contribution to overall spending therein.
 
Begun in early 2023, the series has already featured over two dozen articles by various authors discussing price transparency data, abusive billing practices, state efforts to address high commercial prices, federal antitrust guidance, public-to-private cost-shifting, and many related topics.
 
Thanks to ongoing support from Arnold Ventures, we are able to reissue our call for submissions for this series.  We will accept submissions on a rolling basis throughout 2024.  
 
Questions, including those about the suitability of a particular topic, can be sent to [email protected].