Dear John,

ICYMI, applications for the 2024–2025 Health Equity Fellowship for Trainees cohort are open until February 15, 2024.

As we reflect on the incredible journey of Health Affairs Scholar’s first six months, it’s remarkable to see the impact achieved by its authors.

Health Affairs Scholar, an open access journal, is the first new journal published under the aegis of Health Affairs and Project HOPE since our founding in 1981. The new publication opened its first issue in June 2023.

In her recent “Overview: From the Editor,” Health Affairs Scholar Editor-in-Chief Kathryn Phillips highlights a few standout contributions.

We encourage readers to review the highlights from Scholar below.

1. Ten health policy challenges for the next 10 years by Kathryn A Phillips, Deborah A Marshall, Loren Adler, Jose Figueroa, Simon F Haeder, Rita Hamad, Inmaculada Hernandez, Corrina Moucheraud, and Sayeh Nikpay

2. Why is it so hard for academic medical centers to succeed in value-based care? by Bob Kocher and Robert M Wachter

3. The Better Care Plan: a blueprint for improving America's healthcare system by Stephen M Shortell, John S Toussaint, George C Halvorson, Jon M Kingsdale, Richard M Scheffler, Allyson Y Schwartz, Peter A Wadsworth, and Gail Wilensky

4. Measuring private equity penetration and consolidation in emergency medicine and anesthesiology by Loren Adler, Conrad Milhaupt, and Samuel Valdez

5. Perspectives of private payers on multicancer early-detection tests: informing research, implementation, and policy by Julia R Trosman, Christine B Weldon, Allison W Kurian, Mary M Pasquinelli, Sheetal M Kircher, Nikki Martin, Michael P Douglas, and Kathryn A Phillips

6. A holistic view of innovation incentives and pharmaceutical policy reform by Rachel Sachs, Loren Adler, and Richard Frank 

7. Is employment group insurance financing of expensive gene therapies threatened in the United States? by Jalpa A Doshi, Morgan Eilers, Atul Gupta, Mark Pauly, and Alexander L Olssen

8. Access challenges for patients with limited English proficiency: a secret-shopper study of in-person and telehealth behavioral health services in California safety-net clinics by Lori Uscher-Pines, Kandice Kapinos, Claudia Rodriguez, Samantha Pérez-Dávila, Pushpa Raja, Jorge A Rodriguez, Maya Rabinowitz, Mara Youdelman, and Jessica L Sousa

9. Recent modifications to the US methadone treatment system are a Band-Aid—not a solution—to the nation's broken opioid use disorder treatment system by Noa Krawczyk, Paul J Joudrey, Rachel Simon, Danielle M Russel, and David Frank

10. Patient-centered inpatient psychiatry is associated with outcomes, ownership, and national quality measures by Morgan C Shields, Mara A G Hollander, Alisa B Busch, Zohra Kantawala, and Meredith B Rosenthal

Health Affairs Branded Post:

Unlocking the potential of technology-driven solutions in Medicaid

Kate Paris

Sponsored by UnitedHealthcare

Cristian Herrera on the COVID-19 Disruption to Latin American and Caribbean Countries

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Cristian Herrera of the World Bank on his recent paper, which sought to identify disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to routine health care services and how eight Latin American and Caribbean countries responded.

Craig Pollack on Low Income Housing Tax Credits

In a special series on housing and health, Health Affairs' Rob Lott interviews Craig Pollack from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

This is a special series leading up to the release of a theme issue on housing and health in February.

To Build A Culture Of Health, We Must See How Culture Shapes Health

Karabi Acharya

The Inflation Reduction Act Coinsurance Glitch

Mark V. Pauly et al.

Clinical Preventive Guidelines Should Foster Patient Access: A Reply To Killelea And Johnson

Richard H. Hughes IV

Protecting Youth In The Context Of Marijuana Legalization: Creating A Legal And Regulatory Framework

Lindsey Vuolo et al.

The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program: Statutory And Agency Authority Challenges

Suhasini Ravi

Value-Based Care Can Transform The Treatment Of Patients With Substance Use Disorder

Robert S. Kaplan and Sarah E. Wakeman

Jobs at Health Affairs

Health Affairs is the perfect place to advance your career while contributing to the leading research and analysis on improving health policy and health care.

Our team contains a deep bench of experienced professionals in health policy, dedicated to making health care better.

Below are the current job openings at Health Affairs:

• Senior Editor
• Senior Development Director