What To Do To Rescue The Social Security Disability Insurance Program?

The sponsored ad on Facebook read: "If your age is 50-54, you can be approved for Social Security Disability benefits even if you are still able to perform sedentary work as long as your past work was not skilled or semi-skilled... click below for a free evaluation by an experienced SSD advocate or attorney." What the ad doesn't mention is that the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Program won't be able to sustain itself much longer. Wharton Public Policy Institute Director Mark Duggan recently testified before Congress on SSDI's precarious financial condition.

Postcards from Philadelphia: Addressing Childhood Obesity

In the journal Childhood Obesity, there's a great interview with Philadelphia health officials about the city's progress in reducing childhood obesity rates and in the racial/ethnic disparity in those rates. Deputy Mayor and Health Commissioner Don Schwarz and Giridhar Mallya, Director of Policy and Planning for the Department of Public Health, describe a broad initiative over the past 15 years that is notable for its success in a resource-poor environment.

Still Looking for That Unicorn: Penn Expert Says Latest ACO Study 'Misleading'

News of the latest ACO study in JAMA seemed good; ACOs' ability to save money was "contagious," spreading to non-ACO Medicare patients seen by the same providers. The Washington Post reported that "ACOs may actually be the unicorns we've been waiting for, spreading their cost-saving magic throughout the health system." But Wharton Professor Lawton R. Burns says that unicorn is a mirage and the study report is misleading.

So, How Are We Doing in Diversifying the HSR Workforce?

A 2007 study documented a lack of diversity among health services researchers, a particularly important issue given the increasing diversity of the population. Many initiatives have been launched in an effort to address this issue, including LDI's 13-year-old Summer Undergraduate Minority Research (SUMR) program -- but how are we all doing? Recent data from AcademyHealth shows there's been progress.

Penn Experts Respond to Oregon Medicaid Study

It would be wrong to assume that the findings of a newly-released two-year study of Medicaid outcomes in Oregon is conclusive evidence of the worth -- or lack of worth -- of Medicaid, according to four top University of Pennsylvania health policy experts. They cautioned that the study's findings have been the subject of sensational headlines that present a less-than-accurate picture.

Public vs. Private Funding for Health Care in Developing Countries

What is the role for the private sector in providing and financing health care in developing countries, and what does that mean for public health systems? The tension between public and private sector advocates was in full view at a World Bank conference in Washington entitled "Scaling Up Health Insurance and Financial Protection in Health."

Identifying Low-Value Care is One Thing; Eliminating it is Quite Another

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation released the second wave of its groundbreaking campaign to identify the common medical tests and procedures that are frequently overused or misused. The campaign challenged medical professional societies to come up with the "Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question." More than 130 tests and procedures have made the list so far.

Health Care Reform Spotlight Shifts to States

"This is federalism turned into reality," said Rhode Island Insurance Commissioner Christopher Koller at the AcademyHealth National Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., where nearly 700 researchers and policymakers gathered to discuss the Affordable Care Act's looming deadlines for the states.

The Burgeoning Literature of Health Care Innovation

Innovation in health care is certainly not new, but we've never seen the level of interest, activity and buzz that now characterizes the health policy reseach community's engagement with the topic. Meanwhile, policymakers, providers, and insurers are similarly embracing the belief that the solution to the health care's various woes may lie in that system's near-total reinvention.

A Deeper Dive Into Health Costs Data

Most of the information we have about health care costs in the U.S. comes from the Medicare program. However, more than 60% of insured Americans have private insurance, and until recently comprehensive data about their health care utilization have been unavailable. That's changing with the founding of the Health Care Cost Institute, a new center devoted to studying and sharing commercial claims data.

How Far Can The ACA Reduce Health Care Disparities?

The topic of health care disparities, and how health care reform will affect them, has driven a number of journal articles in the recent months. The evidence indicates that the Affordable Care Act, as originally intended, would reduce disparities in coverage and in clinical care. But now we have to ask what the real-world results will be in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling making Medicaid expansion optional for states.

The ACA's 50-State 'Essential Health Benefits' Tangle

The federal government's efforts to implement national healthcare reform are greatly complicated by a legacy of state-based insurance regulation. The battles to define exactly what medical conditions, procedures or services insurance companies must cover -- the "essential benefits" -- have long been matters of statehouse politics that created more than 1,600 different laws across the country.

Once a Taboo, Exercise Becomes Post-Cancer-Surgery Rehab Tool

Not many revolutions in medical thinking have been driven by fleets of dragon boats rowed by female cancer survivors. But tests of such an unlikely form of therapy in 1996 led to what has become today's new approach to upper body rehabilitation after breast surgery and radiation treatment.

Lowering Premature-Infant Blindness Risk With a Telemedicine Paradigm

Preventing blindness in premature infants is a pretty easy concept to champion but a much more difficult thing to achieve in underserved populations in the U.S. and the developing world. Known as "retinopathy of prematurity" or ROP, this form of blindness is an ironic affliction made possible by our modern age's extraordinary advances in biomedical technology.