Dear John,

On Tuesday, March 19, you are invited to join Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil when he welcomes Douglas Jacobs, the Chief Transformation Officer of the Center for Medicare at CMS, for a Policy Spotlight event.

Dr. Jacobs is a frequent contributor to Health Affairs Forefront. Among the topics to be covered on March 19 is his latest article, Update On The Medicare Value-Based Care Strategy: Alignment, Growth, Equity

Hospital Facility Prices in Oregon

In October 2019, Oregon began the implementation of a hospital payment cap that limited hospital facility prices for members of Oregon’s state employee health insurance plan.

In the March issue of Health Affairs, Roslyn Murray of University of Michigan and coauthors examine the impacts of this policy on hospital facility prices for Oregon’s state employee plan enrollees.

The authors find that the hospital payment cap was associated with a 25.4 percent reduction in outpatient price levels. Inpatient price levels did not change significantly in the first year, but declined in the second. 

Will The Change Healthcare Incident Change Health Care?

Jeff C. Goldsmith

Parsing The Debate Around The Medicare Advantage/Traditional Medicare Payment Gap

Michael E. Chernew and Paul B. Masi

We are excited to announce a summer internship program for college students and high school graduates.

Summer internships will run from mid-June through early August. Available jobs are listed on our website.

Applications are due March 31, 2024.

Health Affairs is committed to providing a robust intern experience, including special projects, access to Health Affairs staff, and inclusion in various team and all-staff meetings.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]

Due to the ongoing support from Arnold Ventures, we are able to reissue our call for submissions for our Forefront series "Accountable Care For Population Health."

We will accept submissions through December 2024.

Let's take a look back at the series, which has featured policy analysis, proposals, and commentary that will inform policies on the state and federal levels to understand and advance models for accountable care.

• Aligning Accountable Care Models With The Goal Of Improving Population Health (March 2024)
• Engaging Specialists In Accountable Care: Tailoring Payment Models Based On Specialties And Practice Contexts (December 2023)
• A Social ACO For Medicaid Managed Care (October 2023)
• Value-Based Care Fuels Innovation, Not Consolidation (June 2023)