The Secret to Saving the Lives of Black Mothers and Babies
In the mountains of North Carolina, black women are fighting a national health care crisis by helping each other have healthier pregnancies. More
As rural Americans struggle for health care access, insurers may be making things worse
Rural communities face growing infrastructure problems like decaying water systems. And they have more limited access to amenities ranging from grocery stores to movie theaters, lower quality schools, and less access to high-speed internet. Yet perhaps most daunting are the tremendous health disparities rural Americans face, in terms of both their own health and accessing care. As a number of my recent studies indicate, these disparities may be exacerbated by insurance carriers and the networks they put together for their consumers. More
How health care costs are squeezing state social spending
Shannon Brownlee and Vikas Saini from the Lown Institute and Benjamin F. Miller from Well Being Trust discuss how state budgets are being squeezed by health care costs and what we can do about it. More
How health care costs are squeezing state social spending
In a Health Affairs Grantwatch blog, Shannon Brownlee and Vikas Saini from the Lown Institute and Benjamin F. Miller from Well Being Trust discuss how state budgets are being squeezed by health care costs and what we can do about it. More
‘Food Pharmacies’ In Clinics: When The Diagnosis Is Chronic Hunger
There’s a new question that anti-hunger advocates want doctors and nurses to ask patients: Do you have enough food? Public health officials say the answer often is “not really.” So clinics and hospitals have begun stocking their own food pantries in recent years. One of the latest additions is Connectus Health, a federally qualified health clinic in Nashville, Tenn. This month, part of LaShika Taylor’s office transformed into a community cupboard. More
Dental patients face years of debt, inflated bills with ‘out-of-pocket’ credit cards
California dentists have been promoting out-of-pocket medical credit cards for their patients. Documents show some dentists have inflated bills for Medi-Cal patients using these cards, which carry high interest rates. More
Black Mothers Get Less Treatment For Postpartum Depression Than Other Moms
Kaiser Health News and the Philadelphia Inquirer More
The extraordinary danger of being pregnant and uninsured in Texas
ProPublica/Vox More
The Decline In Rural Medical Students: A Growing Gap In Geographic Diversity Threatens The Rural Physician Workforce
Growing up in a rural setting is a strong predictor of future rural practice for physicians. This study reports on the fifteen-year decline in the number of rural medical students, culminating in rural students’ representing less than 5 percent of all incoming medical students in 2017. Furthermore, students from underrepresented racial/ethnic minority groups in medicine (URM) with rural backgrounds made up less than 0.5 percent of new medical students in 2017. Both URM and non-URM students with rural backgrounds are substantially and increasingly underrepresented in medical school. If the number of rural students entering medical school were to become proportional to the share of rural residents in the US population, the number would have to quadruple. To date, medical schools’ efforts to recognize and value a rural background have been insufficient to stem the decline in the number of rural medical students. Policy makers and other stakeholders should recognize the exacerbated risk to rural access created by this trend. Efforts to reinforce the rural pipeline into medicine warrant further investment and ongoing evaluation. More
Experts discuss what communities need for health
What are the most urgent needs when it comes to implementing programs that address community conditions? At the final roundtable event in the Drivers of Health project, health policy experts identified crucial research and policy needed to fill the gaps in community health and wellbeing. More
Locked into poverty: Impossible choices forced on the disabled
Nearly 30 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act first outlawed workplace discrimination on the basis of disability, more disabled people live in poverty than when the law was passed. It’s a complex problem with many factors. More
They Bring Medical Care To The Homeless And Build Relationships To Save Lives
"Street medicine" programs, like one in Atlanta, seek out people living in back alleys and under highways. The public health outreach improves patients' health and is cost-effective, hospitals find. More
Medicaid Tweak Might Offer Means To Improve U.S. Maternal Health
Though maternal and child health experts appreciate the attention to the issue, they also point to what they say is a fairly minor policy option that could make a major difference: increasing access to Medicaid for postpartum women. More
Study finds racial bias may affects decisions on heart transplant recipients
Racial bias may affect whether black patients with heart failure are approved for heart transplants, a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found. More
Are we ignoring the systemic factors behind “inappropriate” use of emergency care?
When we characterize ED visits as "inappropriate," we are essentially faulting patients for making the decision to go to the ED; however there is a lot more behind that decision than simply a patient's choice. More
Preventing maternal mortality: We have to address the racism first
If we discuss race, without focusing on social conditions, we are supporting a historical narrative that blames, specifically black and women of color, for health complications during pregnancy. More
America’s Largest Health Insurer Is Giving Apartments to Homeless People
A radical fix for the U.S. health-care crisis. More
A Gender Divide on Microaggressions in Medicine
Many microaggressions are gaffes where the perpetrator is making a misguided attempt at humor. I vividly recall the time I was in training many years ago, and I told my supervising physician about my pregnancy. He responded good-naturedly: “Pregnant? How did you even find the time? We must not be working you hard enough!” I remember mustering a feeble smile, not quite knowing how to respond to his misplaced humor. More
Why minority representation in medical research is a matter of life and death
U.S. racial and ethnic diversity is ever increasing, but the medical representation of minority groups is not. A recent review of government-funded cancer research studies found that participants were disproportionately white, and fewer than 2 percent of these clinical trials focused on minorities specifically. More
Racial bias in a medical algorithm favors white patients over sicker black patients
The Washington Post More