By Kelsey Berry The conflict between a physician’s dual roles as an agent of population health and an agent of his or her patient is exemplified in the classical debate about ethical vaccination policy. Whereas studies have demonstrated the role of vaccination in protecting public health at negligible risk to individuals, “vaccine hesitancy” and non-acceptance…
By Emily Largent The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) recently conducted a survey of gay and bisexual men in the U.S. focusing on attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with HIV/AIDS. The survey results, released Thursday, can be found here. I was most interested in the finding that only a quarter of those surveyed know about PrEP (pre-exposure…
By Lauren Taylor The Health Affairs blog recently published an important write-up of the status of safety net ACOs. Therein, authors James Maxwell, Michael Bailit, Rachel Toby and Christine Barron offer five “key observations regarding emerging safety-net ACOs and suggest broad policy implications” which are drawn from what appears to be a fairly extensive research…
By Zachary Shapiro Hello from the Post-Trial Responsibilities conference! I will be live blogging session 2: where speakers will be providing important perspectives on PTA. Barbra Bierer is monitoring the discussion. We started with Richard Klein calling in from FDA: Richard is talking about post-trial responsibilities. He points out that there is a justice issue…
By Wendy Parmet [Cross-posted from HealthLawProf Blog.] What makes a public health threat an emergency? In this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, Rebecca Haffajee, Michelle M. Mello and I ask this question in connection with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s decision last spring to declare the opioid-addiction epidemic a “public health emergency.” In our Perspective we…
By Rebecca Haffajee, Michelle Mello, and Wendy Parmet In this week’s issue of New England Journal of Medicine, Michelle Mello, Wendy Parmet, and I write about what constitutes — or should constitute — a “public health emergency”. The law provides for emergency declarations, which suspend ordinary legal standards and processes in order to avoid catastrophe,…
By Lauren Taylor When the accountable care organization (ACO) model was initially conceptualized, many in the health policy world hoped it could provide a platform for real transformation of US health care. Among the ACO model’s most promising innovations was its explicit orientation towards achieving “the Triple Aim.” First articulated by Don Berwick and the…
By Katie Kraschel The national press is buzzing after TMZ released a video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s barbaric assault of his then-fiancee, Janay Rice. Much of the spotlight of the coverage shined on the NFL’s handling of the abuse, and perhaps even more time was spent yesterday questioning Ms. Rice’s decision to stay…
By Matthew Lawrence As we gear up for a second year of exchange marketplace enrollment, one issue to keep an eye on is the success we have at getting people who live in rural areas onto the healthcare rolls. As pointed out in today’s Kaiser Health News write-up (here), there is potential for the ACA…
By Wendy Parmet[Ed. Note: Cross-posted from HealthLawProf Blog.] Last month’s riots in an Ebola-infected slum in Monrovia, Liberia demonstrated anew the perils of relying on quarantine, and similar highly coercive public health laws, to contain highly contagious diseases. At first blush, Ebola viral disease (EVD) is exactly the type of disease for which broad quarantines…
