- Center on Health Equity & Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
Innovation to Manage Specialty Populations
There is a lot of innovation in the US healthcare industry concerning ways to manage the care for specialty populations, but there still needs to be a way to regulate these innovative models. Matt Salo pointed out that for so long the financial incentives have not been there to get people healthy and keep them there, and meanwhile only a small part of the population accounts for half of the total costs.
“That’s the Holy Grail,” Salo said. “If we can figure out how to improve the care and bring the cost down for that group, then we’ll have figured all this out.”
Unfortunately, with all the emerging models out there, data is not being shared across boundaries and entities are caring for part of a person instead of the whole person, said Margaret E. O’Kane.
“I think the challenge is catching up with [current innovation], assessing it in a hard-nosed way, and really being able to make comparisons,” O’Kane said. “Part of the problem with a proliferation of innovation is that everybody’s doing something different and they’re all measuring it in a different way.”
ACA Dependent Coverage Extension and Young Adults’ Substance-Associated ED Visits
September 15th 2025This study examines the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on substance-associated emergency department (ED) visits among young adults, revealing reduced alcohol-associated visits but unchanged opioid-associated visits.
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AI in Health Care: Balancing Governance, Innovation, and Trust
September 2nd 2025In this conversation with Reuben Daniel, associate vice president of artificial intelligence at UPMC Health Plan, we dive into how UPMC Health Plan builds trust with providers and members, discuss challenges of scaling AI effectively, and hear about concrete examples of AI's positive impact.
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Infertility Coverage Boosts ART Use and Pregnancy Success: Richard A. Brook, MS, MBA
August 26th 2025In this episode, Richard A. Brook, MS, MBA, discusses his study showing that infertility treatment coverage increases assisted reproductive technology (ART) use and improves pregnancy outcomes.
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