1.15
Health Care Policy
Two Penn faculty named Hastings Center Fellows
Scott D. Halpern and Jennifer Prah Ruger are acknowledged for their outstanding accomplishments in ethics and health.
Exacerbating the health care divide
With rates of diagnoses and death disproportionately affecting racial minorities and low-income workers, experts from the School of Arts & Sciences address how COVID-19 has further exposed already dire health outcome inequalities.
A new vision for the Population Aging Research Center
For more than 25 years, PARC has been a hub for work on disparities in aging and mortality. Co-directors Hans-Peter Kohler and Norma Coe, who took over in July, want to expand its reach.
An analysis of President-elect Biden’s tax proposals
The Penn Wharton Budget Model takes a post-election look at the platform of President-elect Joe Biden and forecasts its potential effects on the economy.
Elizabeth Warren’s take on the election and the path forward
The Massachusetts senator’s discussion with Fels Distinguished Fellow Elizabeth Vale was part of the Fels Public Policy in Practice series.
A post-pandemic path to solving the nursing home crisis
A collaboration of experts across Penn schools has created a detailed, long-term policy plan for nursing homes, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Across U.S. Catholic archdioceses, child protection policies vary widely
A report from CHILD USA, led by Professor of Practice Marci Hamilton, found that such policies lack uniformity, aren’t comprehensive, and often don’t take a victim-centered approach.
Aging and the costs that come with it
As a high school student, junior Darcey Hookway spent time volunteering on a dementia ward at a local hospital. “The social aspect of their condition really struck me,” says Hookway, who is from London. “They struggled immensely with social isolation. And now with COVID exacerbating that more than ever, I think that’s a huge detriment to their health.”
Enhanced Recovery program significantly reduces post-op opioid use
An Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocol for elective spine and peripheral nerve surgery decreases opioid use and the length of hospital stays.
Community health worker interventions can reduce hospitalizations
A new study adds to the growing evidence base that community health workers can help meet the challenges of traditional health care delivery and strained health systems.
In the News
How the pandemic is changing medicine
PIK Professor Jonathan D. Moreno and the Law School’s Stephen N. Xenakis wrote that the pandemic could change many countries’ approaches to public health. “The battle against the virus presents an opportunity to recalibrate our health care system as well as advance our practices,” they wrote.
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How will COVID-19 leave its mark on health care?
Amol Navathe of the Perelman School of Medicine says the American health care system has demonstrated its adaptability during the past three months and called for both a new financial model and greater investments in technology.
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How health insurers can be heroes. Really
Amol Navathe of the Perelman School of Medicine and PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel called for health insurers to support customers by cutting premiums and co-payments, help hospitals and doctors by switching to a fixed-fee model, and work with public health officials to expand COVID-19 testing and establish contact tracing.
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Imagining a justice-based health system
Jennifer Prah Ruger of the School of Social Policy & Practice was interviewed about health inequity in the time of the coronavirus. “We need to recognize, now more than ever, given this latest pandemic, that [science] is a major area for investment going forward,” she said.
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Medicaid block grant proposals spell trouble for patients and hospitals
Health System CEO Kevin Mahoney wrote an op-ed about proposals he believes would erode Medicaid. The proposed plans “represent a return to bad policy that would chip away at medical care for the nation’s most vulnerable citizens and further stress the precarious operations of many hospitals,” he writes.
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Obamacare’s secret success
PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel and Cathy Zhang and Aaron Glickman of the Perelman School of Medicine wrote about the successes of the Affordable Care Act. “This coverage triumph does not mean that the American health care system does not need reform. But it does demonstrate that the ACA can catalyze near-universal coverage. And by adopting some modest policy reforms, every state, and the country as a whole, can get there, too,” they wrote.
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