Evaluation of Low-Value Services Across Major Medicare Advantage Insurers and Traditional Medicare.

Importance: Compared with traditional Medicare (TM), Medicare Advantage (MA) insurers have greater financial incentives to reduce the delivery of low-value services (LVS); however, there is limited evidence at a national level on the prevalence of LVS utilization among MA vs TM beneficiaries and whether LVS utilization rates vary among the largest MA insurers.

Objective: To determine whether there are differences in the rates of LVS delivered to Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in MA vs TM, overall and by the 7 largest MA insurers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study included Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older residing in the US in 2018 with complete demographic information.

High-performing primary care clinics across high-need, high-cost Medicare populations.

Background: To reduce spending and improve quality, some primary care clinics in the USA have focused on high-need, high-cost (HNHC) Medicare beneficiaries, which include clinically distinct subpopulations: older adults with frailty, adults under 65 years with disability and beneficiaries with major complex chronic conditions. Nationally, the extent to which primary care clinics are high-performing 'Bright Spots'-clinics that achieve favourable outcomes at lower costs across HNHC beneficiary subpopulations-is not known.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of primary care clinics that perform highly on commonly used cost or quality measures for HNHC subpopulations.

Evaluation of Potentially Avoidable Acute Care Utilization Among Patients Insured by Medicare Advantage vs Traditional Medicare.

Importance: Medicare Advantage plans have strong incentives to reduce potentially wasteful health care, including costly acute care visits for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs). However, it remains unknown whether Medicare Advantage plans lower acute care use compared with traditional Medicare, or if it shifts patients from hospitalization to observation stays and emergency department (ED) direct discharges.

Objective: To determine whether Medicare Advantage is associated with differential utilization of hospitalizations, observations, and ED direct discharges for ACSCs compared with traditional Medicare.

Correction: The Story of #GetMePPE and GetUsPPE.org to Mobilize Health Care Response to COVID-19 : Rapidly Deploying Digital Tools for Better Health Care.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/20469.].

Renewing the Call for Reforms to Medical Device Safety-The Case of Penumbra.

Importance: Strengthening premarket and postmarket surveillance of medical devices has long been an area of focus for health policy makers. The recent class I recall (the most serious of the US Food and Drug Administration [FDA] recalls) of reperfusion catheters manufactured by Penumbra, a US-based medical device company, illustrates issues of device safety and oversight that mandate attention.

Objectives: To review the regulatory history and clinical evidence of the Penumbra JET 7 Reperfusion Catheter with Xtra Flex Technology (JET 7) and use the device recall as a case study of the challenges associated with clinical evaluation, transparency, and oversight of medical devices in the US.

Decreasing primary care use and blood pressure monitoring during COVID-19.

Among a group of primary care accountable care organizations, patients with hypertension were 50% less likely to have a blood pressure recorded in April compared with February.

Ensuring Racial Equity in Pregnancy Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic provoked sweeping changes in practice to care for pregnant and birthing people, and highlighted inequities that threaten to exacerbate racial disparities in maternal outcomes. Moreover, social distancing measures have made it harder for pregnant people to access support.

Assessment: Prioritizing widespread access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination for pregnant people is critical to ensuring they receive safe and equitable care.

Early Hospital Compliance With Federal Requirements for Price Transparency.

This cross-sectional study assesses compliance within a random sample of hospitals with a federal rule requiring hospitals to disclose the prices they negotiate with insurers.

Leveraging artificial intelligence for pandemic preparedness and response: a scoping review to identify key use cases.

Artificial intelligence (AI) represents a valuable tool that could be widely used to inform clinical and public health decision-making to effectively manage the impacts of a pandemic. The objective of this scoping review was to identify the key use cases for involving AI for pandemic preparedness and response from the peer-reviewed, preprint, and grey literature. The data synthesis had two parts: an in-depth review of studies that leveraged machine learning (ML) techniques and a limited review of studies that applied traditional modeling approaches.

The hidden costs of moving care home.

As home-based care utilization rises, an exploration of potential unintended consequences is necessary. The authors focus on support gaps, informal caregiving, and failure to meaningfully engage clinicians.

The missing strategy in addressing language barriers.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is magnifying preexisting health disparities whereby patients with limited English proficiency receive lower-quality health care and experience poorer outcomes. To address these realities, language interventions to date have focused on interpreter services and linguistically tailored health information. But these limited solutions fail to target a more upstream, overlooked, and modifiable factor: a patient's access to improving their English proficiency and health literacy.

Accountable Care Organizations during Covid-19: Routine care for older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens the health and well-being of older adults with multiple chronic conditions. To date, limited information exists about how Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are adapting to manage these patients. We surveyed 78 Medicare ACOs about their concerns for these patients during the pandemic and strategies they are employing to address them.