- Center on Health Equity & Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
Law Will Shift Demographics For Medicaid Toward Healthier Group, Study Finds
The health law is expected to change the face of Medicaid literally.
The health law is expected to change the face of Medicaid — literally.
As part of the federal overhaul, some states have opted to expand in January this state-federal health insurance program for low income people to include Americans who earn as much as 138 percent of the federal poverty line (just under $16,000 for an individual in 2013). As a result, the new enrollees will include more white, male and healthy individuals than those eligible before the Affordable Care Act expansion, according to a study in the Annals of Family Medicine.
Using statistics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the authors found that the group of newly eligible individuals is:
- About 36 years old on average, compared with about 39 years old for the current enrollees.
- Approximately 59 percent non-Hispanic white, compared with about 50 percent in the existing group.
- Equally split between males and females, compared with about 67 percent female and 33 percent male in the current Medicaid population.
- More likely to smoke and drink, but also more likely to have lower rates of obesity and diabetes.
Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/1ezFrSk
Source: Kaiser Health News
Tailored Dosing for MM Matters More Than Drug Count: Ajai Chari, MD
April 25th 2025When it comes to treating multiple myeloma (MM), Ajai Chari, MD, argued that more is not always better. More intense treatment regimens, or those with more drugs, don't necessarily guarantee better outcomes.
Read More
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
Listen
Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
Listen
Contributor: For Complex Cases, Continuity in Acute Care Is Necessary
April 23rd 2025For patients with complex needs and social challenges like unstable housing, the hospital has become their de facto medical home—yet each visit is a fragmented restart, without continuity, context, or a clear path forward.
Read More
