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PODCAST

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David Introcaso

David Introcaso, Ph.D.

Podcast interviews with health policy experts on timely subjects. The Healthcare Policy Podcast website features audio interviews with healthcare policy experts on timely topics. An online public forum routinely presenting expert healthcare policy analysis and comment is lacking. While other healthcare policy website programming exists, these typically present vested interest viewpoints or do not combine informed policy analysis with political insight or acumen. Since healthcare policy issues

government & organizations national

All Episodes

22:38

The Health Benefits of Marijuana and Related...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2017/01/26

Listen NowThis past November, voters in seven states legalized marijuana either for medical or for recreational use. Twenty-nine states have now legalized cannabis for medicinal use (and of these eight, along with the District of Columbia, for recreational use). Despite growing state legalization, the debate concerning marijuana's health effects continues. Recently, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published an extensive scientific review of research literature published since 1999 to

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22:13

NIDCD's Efforts to Reduce Noise-Induced Hearing Loss:...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2017/01/07

Listen NowWhile there is evidence noise-induced hearing loss among adolescents has increased due to the use of smartphones and other mobile devices, the evidence to date is not compelling or is still the subject of scientific debate. Nevertheless, noise induced-hearing loss is a legitimate concern and therefore a topic in need of health education to combat, particularly since exposure is frequently voluntary, the consequences are cumulative and because the effects typically do not manifest until

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32:42

Solitary Confinement: the Least Discussed & Most...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/12/20

Listen NowOn any given day US prisons and jails hold between 80,000 and 120,000 men, women and children in solitary confinement. A significant percent of these individuals enter solitary with a mental disease and a similar percent of those held in isolation for extended periods of time develop severe psychiatric illnesses that include self amputation and suicidality. (US prisons and jails constitute the largest psychiatric hospitals in the country.) The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other

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23:05

Will the Republicans Repeal the Affordable Care Act...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/12/06

Listen NowWith the election of Donald Trump Congressional Republicans are poised to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) within the first 100 days of the 115th Congress via the budget reconciliation process. (At some future date they are pledging to draft ACA replacement language or legislation.) The expectation is repeal would have an effective date of 2018 or 2019, or after the mid-term Congressional elections. However, many if not most health policy experts agree the simple act of repeal would

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21:14

The Pros and Cons (or Imperfections) in Rating...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/12/01

Listen NowThough comparatively late to adopt quality ratings, many health care products and services are today quality rated. For example, CMS rates hospital, nursing home and home health care care quality along with Medicare Advantage insurance and prescription drug, or Part D plans. Quality performance is a factor in calculating rewards and penalties in Medicare pay for performance agreements, for example, in scoring earned shared savings for Accountable Care Organizations. Though today

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30:27

What Explains the Opioid Epidemic? Dr. Anna Lembke...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/11/17

Listen NowAs has been widely reported the US has faced an opioid addiction epidemic over the past decade. Opioid-related overdose deaths have quadrupled in recent years. (Drug overdose deaths, in sum, now equal or exceed auto accident fatalities.) What explains the dramatic increase use and addiction to these medicines? In Drug Dealer, MD, recently published by Johns Hopkins University Press, Dr. Anna Lembke presents a nuanced explanation of what is a highly complex problem. The 30 minute

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21:27

The ACA's Little Discussed But Very Intriguing State...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/10/24

Listen NowSection 1332 of the Affordable Car Act allows states to propose Affordable Care Act-comparable state insurance programs. Programs would need to meet certain criteria in order to win federal waiver authority. One state currently considering a wavier is Colorado, i.e., Colorado voters will be asked to approve a state constitutional amendment that would create in part, a financing plan that would provide universal health care to all eligible Colorado residents. During this 20 minute

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25:17

Methods to Stabilize the State Health Insurance...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/10/15

Listen NowUnitedHealth Group and other major health care insurers' participation in state health insurance marketplaces has caused increasing concern Affordable Care Act-created state marketplaces are becoming unstable. Moreover, this means health care insurance consumers will have little or possibly no choice in selecting an insurance provider. For example, in 2016 30 percent of counties throughout the US had only two insurers participating in state marketplaces (10 percent of counties had one)

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26:41

"The Poverty Industry, The Exploitation of America's...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/09/23

Listen NowFor this, my 101st interview, I discuss with the author, Daniel L. Hatcher, his new work, "The Poverty Industry, The Exploitation of America's Most Vulnerable Citizens." The work is aptly summarized by Columbia University Professor Jane Spinak. She notes on the book's dust jacket, "In the tradition of great muckracking, Hatcher has exposed how states and localities misdirected and misused public funds envisioned to benefit the most vulnerable among us." During this 26 minute conversation

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23:36

Medicare Advantage Program Reforms Within and Beyond...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/08/16

Listen NowSince the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 CMS has been working to reform Medicare reimbursements from "fee for service" to "fee for value." (Earlier this year Secretary Burwell noted 30% of traditional or "fee for service" Medicare reimbursements are now tied to quality or value.) The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) passed in 2015 accelerates this transition by incenting Medicare providers to participate in "fee of value" or pay for performance agreements,

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24:19

What Can Be Done About Reforming the Employer Health...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/08/06

Listen NowExcluding from taxable income the moneys employers spend in providing employees with health insurance dates back to WWII-era wage and price controls. Today, this tax policy, that amounts to over $250 billion in lost federal tax revenue, effectively constitutes the third largest federal government expenditure on health care after Medicare and Medicaid. Few tax experts would disagree that the tax exclusion constitutes bad policy. Beyond lost tax revenues, the policy is, among other

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21:50

What Does Performance Under Medicare's Value-based...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/07/11

Listen NowThe 2015 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) will sunset three current Medicare performance measurement and incentive payment programs in 2018. (This year, 2016, will be the last year these programs will be measuring and rewarding Medicare physician performance.) These are: the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS); the HIT Meaningful Use (MU) program; and, the Value-Based Modifier (VM) Program. The VM Program, modified under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, is

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23:06

Recent Efforts to Improve Quality Measurement: A...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/06/16

Listen NowMeasuring health care quality and outcomes effectively and efficiently remains a daunting task. Quality measures are largely seen as too process versus outcome focused, substantially irrelevant to patients and insufficiently aligned between and among payers. Measuring care or care quality, ironically, can and does detract from actual care delivery, can have no relationship to spending efficiency and on its own is costly. A recent article published in Health Affairs found physician

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23:16

How CMS Proposes to Annually Update Medicare...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/06/15

Listen NowIn an extremely busy year for Medicare delivery and payment reform, regulatory implementation of the 2015 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) stands out. This past April CMS published the agency's 960-page proposed rule to implement the law. The proposed rule, that will go final this fall, will change the way Medicare physician payments (Medicare Part B) are annually updated beginning in payment year 2019. Payment updates, either at the individual provider or at the

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21:45

Andrea LaFountain Discusses Her Recent Work: "How...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/05/31

Listen NowWhat accounts for so called patient compliance or adherence or why is it the case physicians and other providers are frequently unable to successfully engage their patients. Why is it the case, for example, that patients adhere to highly toxic regimens of such as chemo therapy and not to more tolerable drugs such as statins. What explains adherence or non-adherence? During this 22-minute conversation Dr. LaFountain explains why, using her phrase, the "epidemic of non-adherence"

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34:49

Daniel Dawes Discusses His Recent Book,"150 Years of...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/04/28

Listen NowSince, in part, April is recognized by DHHS as National Minority Health Month (this year's theme is "Accelerating Health Equity in the Nation") it is thoroughly appropriate to discuss Professor Daniel Dawes's recent work, "150 Years of Obamacare." Professor Dawes's work begins with a discussion of efforts since the Civil War to reform national health care policy beginning with the 1865 Freedmen's Bureau Act. The work moreover provides an accounting of his and others efforts to lobby

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19:57

Operational Challenges Associated with Accountable...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/04/21

Listen NowAs a follow up to my April 1st conversation with Jim Gera concerning bundled payments, during this podcast Dr. Richard Morel discusses Medicare's other major payment reform program, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), or WESTMED Medical Group's three year experience as a Track 1 ACO. The Medicare ACO program is a creation of the 2010 Accountable Care Act and participation in the program began in 2012. Currently, there are 434 ACOs (over 90 percent participating in the "no risk"

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28:59

How Orthopedic Bundled Payments Are Being...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/04/04

Listen NowToday, CMS launched the agency's second bundled payment demonstration, a mandatory five-year initiative in approximately 800 hospitals nation-wide. It's titled, the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR). The CJR essentially reimburses hospitals a predetermined amount for a 90-day hip or knee surgical and rehab episode of care. CMS is emphasizing hip and knee replacement surgeries because they account for the single largest Medicare dollar amount and highest percent of annual 30

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23:20

Payment Reform, California Style: A Conversation with...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/02/19

Listen NowCalifornia has been long known for health care delivery and payment reform (think, for example, Kaiser Permanente). With efforts nation-wide to better align health care quality and patient outcomes with reimbursement or savings efficiency, related efforts in California are carefully watched and studied. During this 23 minute conversation Dr. Jill Yegian briefly outlines the work if the California Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA), provides an overview of the California

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20:17

The Oral Health of Seniors and Medicare Coverage...

The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David... ·

2016/01/29

Listen NowThe Medicare program, now in its 51st year, still does not cover oral/dental health care such as exams, X-rays, cleanings, fillings, tooth extractions and dentures. (Medicare will cover an oral health procedure if it is incent to a serious accident or disease, for example, for surgery to treat fractures of the jaw or face or if you have oral cancer and need dental services necessary for radiation treatments.) This is unfortunate when you consider for example: poor oral/dental health

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328 results

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