We often hear that the U.S. underinvests in primary care and prevention—and that this explains why Americans live shorter, less healthy lives. In our new @thelancetph.bsky.social, we take a closer look at this issue. #IrenePapanicolas @Brown www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

It’s hard to put into words how inspiring Dr. Sue Goldie is. An extraordinary teacher, researcher, leader, and mentor to so many of us @hsph.harvard.edu who now shares her deeply personal story fighting against Parkinson’s disease. Her story in @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

In new #HealthAffairs Forefront piece, we show a troubling trend: Rapid growth of “Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans (C-SNPs)” enrolling dual-eligibles. We argue their growth is threatening national integrated care efforts for duals. www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/f...

Federal funding reportedly sent to Harvard for about 200 grants totaling $46 million. Some welcome relief hopefully to so many. Story below: www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Viewpoint: #Medicaid is vital for low-income, dual-eligible adults and people with disabilities, but coverage disruptions due to administrative barriers increase health risks. ja.ma/4pBxGUO

Sign of a broken health care system when patients with cancer feel like this: “I always told myself the stress of dealing with insurance was worse than the cancer.” Insights from patients w/ cancer dealing with prior authorizations in @jamanetworkopen.com study jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The true cost of the reconciliation bill will be measured in lives—over 50,000 per year. It’s a predictable result when you cut off insurance to people who are old, poor and sick. Eric Roberts @pennldi.bsky.social and I discuss @msnbc.com @harvardhpm.bsky.social www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Promising development in Congress: A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers considering finally fixing the MA to VA cost-shifting loophole that currently leads to billions in MA profits to provide zero care while VA foots the bill. Story by @wsj.com www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Our new @JAMAHealthForum study adds more evidence on how Medicare Advantage plans enrolling veterans are maximizing profits by not paying for care. Veterans in high-veteran MA plans are much more likely to have surgical care paid by VA than plan itself—even when surgery occurs in non-VA hospitals…

I’m honored and excited to have been selected as one of the 2025 Aspen Ideas Health Fellows this year! Forum brings together a diverse set of people working on issues related to improving health. Full list of @aspenideas.bsky.social Health Fellows: www.aspenideas.org/articles/202...

I want to emphasize that this is 18,000 avoidable deaths per year *of Medicare enrollees.* They aren't in CBO's "uninsured" count — they're older people and folks with disabilities on Medicare who won't get extra financial help because of a proposed moratorium on a regulation.

CBO projects that House reconciliation bill will cause 1.38 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries to lose Medicaid coverage We estimate that this will lead to over 18,000 avoidable deaths per year stemming from loss of drug subsidies Link to our memo led by @pennldi.bsky.social: bit.ly/4mwfcDA

Last week was hard for us @hsph.harvard.edu after losing all NIH grants. This week, we are forced to reckon with what’s next, including shutting down research portfolios, considering staffing cuts, and scrambling to cover salaries. HSPH: “ground zero” of NIH cuts www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/u...

Great summary of 2 recent studies in @npr.org by @lesliemwalker.bsky.social that show: 1) Value of having Medicaid (Wyse & Meyer, NBER) 2) Human costs of losing Medicaid & linked subsidized drug coverage in @nejm.org Lives saved in study 1 and lives lost in study 2 www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Veterans in Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare used dental and vision services at similar rates, with no significant difference in total spending. #SGIM25 https://ja.ma/3ZficKj#SGIM25

Many veterans enrolling in Medicare Advantage get zero care paid by plans. MA insurers argue that vets get extra benefits (vision + dental). But in new @jama.com study, we find that this claim is NOT actually the truth. @adambeckman.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Loss of Subsidized Drug Coverage and Mortality among Medicare Beneficiaries | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... How important is help with drug costs? For dual Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries, it saves lives.

As @lesliemwalker.bsky.social writes for Tradeoffs today, discussing the paper’s findings, that regulation “was poised to help nearly 1 million more duals gain this extra medication assistance, but the latest Republican proposal delays that rule until 2035.”

Talk about some timely research. Here's the punchline: "Loss of drug subsidies after Medicaid disenrollment was associated with higher mortality among low-income Medicare beneficiaries." www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Eric Roberts and @joefigs.bsky.social led a groundbreaking new study on Medicaid and Medicare, out today in NEJM. I’m lucky to have been a part of it. Medicare saves lives. But is it enough to save lives of the most vulnerable Americans? The study suggests no; Medicaid still matters. (1/11)

The White House's "skinny budget" clarifies that they are, indeed, proposing to end all new extramural AHRQ funding while folding it into ASPE. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u... (Standard disclaimer that AHRQ is an agency created and funded by Congress, not at the whims of the executive branch)

Quality of care has been improving for older people with HIV (PWH) In new @JAMANetwOpen study, we show rates of filling older, toxic ART among PWH has substantially declined to near zero in favor of newer/preferred ART regimens. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

After 28 years, the legendary Arnie Epstein is stepping down as chair of HPM at HSPH @hsph.harvard.edu He’s been an incredible chair that has guided & grown the department for nearly 3 decades, and we will all miss him as our chair… @harvardhpm.bsky.social

New study on Y1 of ACO REACH finds that it did not achieve its goal of enrolling organizations that serve beneficiaries with high levels of social risk. “Without broader participation, ACO REACH is unlikely to achieve its goal of reducing health inequities.” jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

As Harvard prepares for its defense against the federal govt and the looming NIH freeze, Mass General Brigham (MGB) leadership begins to distance itself from the Harvard name…

New @nejm.org study with alarming results. The wealthiest Americans do not live as long as the wealthiest in other countries. In fact, mortality among the wealthiest Americans appeared to be similar to people in the poorest quartile in northern and western Europe. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Agencies of the federal government just announced that they will begin comprehensive review of federal contracts and grants of “@Harvard and its affiliates.” Up to $225.6 million in contracts at stake plus >$8.7 billion in grants. www.hhs.gov/about/news/t...

Across the board, US states are all falling behind other countries when it comes to avoidable deaths. Check out great @medscape.com explanation and short video by @fperrywilson.bsky.social on our recent #JAMAIM study www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

How are MA plans recruiting a veterans that get most of their care paid by VA and not by MA? 1. Make it cheap to enroll (offer $0 premiums & cash backs) 2. Offer no Part D drug coverage (rare for MA) Our new #JAMAHealthForum study led by PhD student Allie Dorneo jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Viewpoint from former VA employees, including former Veterans Health Administration Undersecretary for Health and former director of the Health Services Research program jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

"Avoidable mortality [eg, vaccine-preventable deaths & road traffic collisions] has worsened across all US states, while other high-income countries show improvement" RFK jr's (et al) Dark Age 2.0 ain't gonna help this situation. Study: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Avoidable mortality has worsened for all US states while other high-income countries show improvement. And while other countries seem to gain health with more spending, no such relationship exists across US states. Our new @JAMA_IM study led by @IPapanicolas jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Big congratulations to all medical students matching today! Especially excited to welcome the new 2025-2026 Class of #Brigham&Women’sHospital (BWH) Internal Medicine Interns! We are looking forward to working with you all very soon! @harvardmed.bsky.social

“Excluding [dual noneligibles] from national discussions of health care access undermines our country’s public health goals,” says Harvard Chan’s Jose Figueroa. In this Q&A, @joefigs.bsky.social discusses policy solutions to help deliver health care to older undocumented people:

Commonwealth Care Alliance is going bankrupt… The health for ~50K low-income people, many with disability or complex medical needs, now in the balance… @bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/19/b...

Medicaid at 60 special issue from JHPPL is out, ungated. All-star lineup includes: @povertyscholar.bsky.social @pamherd.bsky.social @laurawherryr.bsky.social @joefigs.bsky.social @charleywillison.bsky.social @ericpatashnik.bsky.social & more read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/issue/...

Well, change is definitely coming to the Mass General Brigham (MGB) world… Nice email to wake up to today…

I’m delighted to share our recent work t.co/VGpLro9Kmo suggesting that much of the growth in VA spending on ED visits to non-VA (“community”) EDs is due a shift in payer for ED visits from Medicare to the VA, rather than a large change in where veterans are seeking emergency care.

The plight of “dual non-eligible” people — low income older adults who have been working in US for years but lack access to most healthcare services because they are undocumented. In new @nejm.org perspective, we highlight the challenges they face and offer some ideas that may help.

New #conference for anyone interested in international health systems comparative research! Hosted by @WUSTL #QUESTCenter Date: October 29-31, 2025 Location: St Louis, MO More info: scienceforhealthsystems.org

Interesting new @thelancet.bsky.social study by H. Naci @lsehealthpolicy.bsky.social & I. Papanicolas @Brown Study shows tradeoffs in England of covering costly new drugs at the expense of not covering existing drugs/services in NHS. Result: Less health gains www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

This, from @dylanlscott.bsky.social , is the best distillation I've seen of what I have taken to calling the "spider-men meme" problem in health care www.vox.com/future-perfe...

News from Health Affairs Scholar. We now have a "research letter" option with a max 750-word count, < 10 references, and 1 table or figure (requirements to be updated on our website) For details see: academic.oup.com/healthaffair...

Medicare Advantage plans collecting billions from CMS to provide little to no care to veterans. New analysis by @wsj.com consistent with our recent #HealthAffairs study (www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/...) Link to article: www.wsj.com/health/healt...

As press reports continue to highlight the debate within GOP Congressional leaders as to whether they should block grant Medicaid to pay for their tax cuts, it is worth highlighting that there are 11.7 million seniors/PWD on Medicare + Medicare. The so-called "Dual-eligibles".

Investigating the existence of racial disparities in the dissemination of ideas using paper citation networks in economics, from Marlène Koffi, Roland Pongou, and Leonard Wantchekon https://www.nber.org/papers/w33150

Can #neighborhood #environmental investments + household #financial services improve #health in #marginalized communities? We'll have an answer by next summer! @pennmedicine.bsky.social magazine feature: www.pennmedicine.org/news/publica... Protocol: clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT055...