Health of Populations and Health Equity

Transitions of care from the emergency department (ED) represent a period of heightened vulnerability for older adults, driven by medical complexity, functional impairment, and social factors.

A new Johns Hopkins analysis of 205,896 branded medication fills offers the first national look inside the prior authorization process — tracking how long patients wait, who gets approved, and who bears the cost.

A nationally representative study of nearly 30,000 U.S. adults found that medical debt was consistently associated with deferred dental, medical, and mental health care, regardless of insurance coverage. More than half of adults with medical debt put off dental care, one in three delayed medical care, and one in five postponed mental health treatment. Uninsured adults with medical debt were significantly more likely to defer medical care than those with commercial insurance, but the pattern of deferred care held across all insurance categories.

The authors argue that Maryland's next phase of payment reform must move beyond hospital global budgets to engage frontline clinicians in population health, outlining priorities for the new AHEAD model including population-based payments, expanded incentives, and regulatory modernization.

Deliver-EE participants have a five-fold higher risk of food insecurity than typical U.S. older adults (47% vs. 9% based on 2023 national data), defined as the inability to afford a consistently balanced diet.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and novel technologies offer tremendous potential for improving the health of older adults, but how key stakeholders make decisions about which technology to finance and adopt is not well understood.

We use 2019 Medicare claims data linked to CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings to measure how the sorting of Black patients to different hospitals within the same healthcare markets affects racial gaps in hospital quality.

Despite emerging treatment options for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), patient preferences for treatment and care remain poorly understood.

One objective of hospital community benefit spending is to enhance community health, especially for vulnerable groups.

Physician demand is growing faster than supply. Four medical education leaders explain what will actually close the gap.