The Association of Readmission Reduction Activities with Primary Care Practice Readmission Rates.

Background: A great deal of research has focused on how hospitals influence readmission rates. While hospitals play a vital role in reducing readmissions, a significant portion of the work also falls to primary care practices. Despite this critical role of primary care, little empirical evidence has shown what primary care characteristics or activities are associated with reductions in hospital admissions.

The Ten Years' War: Politics, Partisanship, And The ACA.

After decades of failed efforts to overhaul American health care, the Affordable Care Act's 2010 enactment was the most important health reform achievement since Medicare and Medicaid's passage. But ten years later, ACA politics are more tenuous than triumphal, and the ACA has not escaped the controversy that surrounded its enactment. This article explores why the ACA has been so divisive despite its considerable accomplishments.

Challenges To Medicare For All Remain Daunting.

Medicare for All plans have many advantages over the status quo. Yet the challenges facing such plans are immense, reflecting their ambitions to achieve universal coverage through a single federal plan and their disruption to existing insurance and financing arrangements. Medicare for All will not become viable unless it can meet the daunting political, economic, and administrative realities that govern US health care.

Lessons From the Long and Winding Road to Medicare for All.

Recently there has been a surge in political attention to Medicare for all, the latest chapter in a long history of conflict over national health insurance in the United States. This essay places the current Medicare for all debate in historical perspective.My aim is to illuminate past struggles over single-payer reform, explore the genesis and evolution of Medicare, and analyze the implications for contemporary health politics of the public and private insurance arrangements developed by the United States over the past century.

Navigating the Shifting Terrain of US Health Care Reform-Medicare for All, Single Payer, and the Public Option.

Policy Points "Medicare for All" is an increasingly common term in US health care reform debates, yet widespread confusion exists over its meaning. The various meanings of Medicare for All and other related terms reflect divergent political and philosophical assumptions about the preferred direction of health care reform, as well as the hybrid structure of the current Medicare program.

No Permanent Fix: MACRA, MIPS, and the Politics of Physician Payment Reform.

Organized medicine long yearned for the demise of Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for updating physician fees. Congress finally obliged in 2015, repealing the SGR as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). MACRA established value-based metrics for physician payment and financial incentives for doctors to join alternative delivery models like patient-centered medical homes.

Impact of Medicare Part D on mental health treatment and outcomes for dual eligible beneficiaries with HIV.

Depression is common among women with HIV and untreated depression can result in poor quality of life and worsen HIV outcomes. Women with HIV who are dually enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare faced a potential disruption in medication access when Medicare Part D was implemented in 2006. The goal of this study was to estimate the effects of Medicare Part D implementation on antidepressant use, depressive symptoms, and hospitalization in Medicaid-Medicare dual eligible women with HIV.

Collision course? Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and the fate of Medicare.

The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States raises questions about the future of Medicare. How will Medicare fare under Republican-led government? There are several compelling reasons that the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans might avoid Medicare reform, including the political risks of taking on a popular program, the difficulties the party has encountered in trying to dismantle the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the importance of older Americans to the GOP coalition, and President Trump's views about Medicare. However, because of fiscal pressures and the commitment of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other Republicans to entitlement reform, the GOP nonetheless could end up attempting to make major changes in Medicare.

Perspectives on Research Participation and Facilitation Among Dialysis Patients, Clinic Personnel, and Medical Providers: A Focus Group Study.

Background: Most prospective studies involving individuals receiving maintenance dialysis have been small, and many have had poor clinical translatability. Research relevance can be enhanced through stakeholder engagement. However, little is known about dialysis clinic stakeholders' perceptions of research participation and facilitation.

Associations Between Medicare Part D and Out-of-Pocket Spending, HIV Viral Load, Adherence, and ADAP Use in Dual Eligibles With HIV.

Background: The implementation of Medicare part D on January 1, 2006 required all adults who were dually enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare (dual eligibles) to transition prescription drug coverage from Medicaid to Medicare part D. Changes in payment systems and utilization management along with the loss of Medicaid protections had the potential to disrupt medication access, with uncertain consequences for dual eligibles with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who rely on consistent prescription coverage to suppress their HIV viral load (VL).

Objective: To estimate the effect of Medicare part D on self-reported out-of-pocket prescription drug spending, AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) use, antiretroviral adherence, and HIV VL suppression among dual eligibles with HIV.