Health Affairs Pathways explores the avenues and alleyways of the health care system through a variety of storytelling – from investigative journalism and health policy explainers to long-form interviews.
Unique series are created by fellows at Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program, designed to support early to mid-stage professionals pursue an audio project, tell a unique health care story, and highlight voices that may not be heard otherwise.
Join the Health Affairs Podcast Fellows on their journey to unearth a new health care story on such topics as health care consolidation, independent primary care, behavioral health, climate change, health equity, and more.
Health Affairs, the leading journal of health policy research, offers a nonpartisan forum to promote analysis and discussions on improving health.
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Health Affairs' Jeff Byers interviews Tracy Fasolino about her experience with creating the podcast series No One Gets Out of Here Alive for the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship.
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In the final episode of No One Gets Out of Here Alive, Clemson University’s Tracy Fasolino addresses the four challenges facing palliative care and hospice services and highlights some of the legislative bills that may fill the needs for patients and caregivers dealing with serious illness.
Guests on this episode include Edo Banach, Dr. Betty Ferrell from City of Hope, Dr. Wayne Hollinger, Mr. Pat Coyne from Medical University of South Carolina, and Ginger Marshal, CEO of Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association.
No One Gets Out of Here Alive was produced by Tracy Fasolino for Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program.
Music by Elias Workman.
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Welcome back to No One Gets Out of Here Alive, where we spend time talking about various legislation that impacts delivery of palliative care and hospice services right now. In this episode, we hear from one family as they share their story in dealing with the serious illness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Host Tracy Fasolino of Clemson University presents four challenges facing palliative care and hospice services right now.
No One Gets Out of Here Alive was produced by Tracy Fasolino for Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program.
Music by Elias Workman.
This episode is dedicated to Al & Wendy for their amazing bravery and exemplary love.
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Welcome to No One Gets Out of Here Alive, the fifth series from Health Affairs Pathways. In this series, Clemson University's Tracy Fasolino unpacks some of the legislative and policy issues associated with palliative care and hospice services through the lens of a nurse.
To start, Tracy peers into the past and tells the history of hospice legislation and the evolution of palliative care. She highlights the key players in the creation of the hospice benefit and shares insights on the growth of palliative care in the US.
Guests on this episode include Edo Banach, Dr. Betty Ferrell from City of Hope, and Dr. Wayne Hollinger.
Music by Elias Workman.
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Health Affairs' Jeff Byers interviews Dr. Michael Shen about his experience with creating the podcast series A Disproportionate Share for the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship.
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In A Disproportionate Share, NYC Health + Hospitals's Michael Shen, a primary care doctor and Chief Creative Officer for the medical education podcast Core IM, explores the role of safety net hospitals in caring for America's vulnerable populations.
In the final episode, Shen discusses why supplemental payments for safety net hospitals might be at risk and look at policy approach that could bolster the safety net. He interviews individuals from NYC Health + Hospitals, America's Essential Hospitals, and University of Pennsylvania.
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In A Disproportionate Share, NYC Health + Hospitals's Michael Shen, a primary care doctor and Chief Creative Officer for the medical education podcast Core IM, explores the role of safety net hospitals in caring for America's vulnerable populations.
In this episode, Shen discusses how we pay for essential care for low income patients delivered through our safety net hospitals and the complex patchwork of supplemental payments for such care. He interviews individuals from America's Essential Hospitals and NYC Health + Hospitals to explain cost-shifting, uncompensated care, payer mixes, cash on-hand, and more.
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Welcome back to Health Affairs Pathways, the podcast fellowship program from Health Affairs.
In 2023, we have two exciting seasons for listeners, one on safety net hospitals and another on palliative and hospice care.
In A Disproportionate Share, NYC Health + Hospitals's Michael Shen, a primary care doctor and Chief Creative Officer for the medical education podcast Core IM, explores safety net hospitals and how we pay for them.
In this first episode, Shen looks at the closure of Hahnemann University Hospital, a large urban hospital affiliated with a major academic medical center, to ask how safety net hospitals sustain themselves on thin financial margins. He shares what safety net hospitals are and their role in caring for America's vulnerable populations.
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In the fourth and final episode of The Earth Disease, journalist Jared Downing explores the carrots and sticks that the federal government can use to curb climate change.
Jared produced this series in 2021 as part of the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program.
Guests on this episode include Dr. Ashish Jha, Howard Frumkin from the University of Washington School of Public Health, and Arsenio Mataka from the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services.
At the time of this recording, Dr. Jha was the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. He is currently the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Counselor to the President. The views represented in this podcast are his own.
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Music produced by Seth Kennedy.
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In the third episode of The Earth Disease, journalist Jared Downing discusses how social determinants of health programs intersect with climate and health policy.
Jared produced this series in 2021 as part of the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program.
Guests in this episode include Aaron Bernstein from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Megan Sandel from Boston Medical Center, Adam Abdul Musawir from Good Food Markets, and Gary Cohen from Healthcare Without Harm.
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Music produced by Seth Kennedy.
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The health care industry is among the most carbon-intensive service sectors in the industrialized world. It is responsible for 4.4–4.6 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and similar fractions of toxic air pollutants, largely stemming from fossil fuel combustion.
In the second episode of The Earth Disease, journalist Jared Downing explores ways that the health care industry is working to curb its carbon footprint.
Jared produced this series in 2021 as part of the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program.
Guests on this episode include Dr. Ashish Jha, Bob Biggio from Boston Medical Center, Jeff Thompson formerly from the Gundersen Health System.
At the time of this recording, Dr. Jha was the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. He is currently the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Counselor to the President. The views represented in this podcast are his own.
Works Cited:
Music produced by Seth Kennedy.
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Health Affairs Pathways explores the avenues and alleyways of the health care system through a variety of storytelling – from investigative journalism and health policy explainers to long-form interviews.
Unique series are created by fellows at the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program, designed to support early to mid-stage professionals pursue an audio project, tell a unique health care story, and highlight voices that may not be heard otherwise.
Our third and final series for the 2021 cohort, The Earth Disease, is from Jared Downing, a journalist based in New York City. In this series, Jared Downing explores the intersection of climate change and health policy.
Jared produced this series in 2021 as part of the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program.
Guests on this episode include Ashish Jha, Aaron Bernstein from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Mariel Fonteyn from Americares, and Ed Gerber from the Lestonnac Free Clinic.
At the time of this recording, Dr. Jha was the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. He is currently the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Counselor to the President. The views represented in this podcast are his own.
Works Cited:
Music produced by Seth Kennedy.
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On the final episode of While We Wait, Avni Kulkarni and Sania Ali explore emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment & healing - or emPATH - units, and how they could re-imagine care emergency psychiatric treatment delivery.
The featured guest on this episode is Scott Zeller, formerly from the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry and currently the vice president of Acute Psychiatry at Vituity.
While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.
Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.
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If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.
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DISCLAIMER: This episode contains information on excessive use of police force and the death of Elijah McClain.
The US mental health care system is facing an emergency. How do we respond?
In the penultimate episode of While We Wait, Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni explore different models for crisis response and first responders, including law enforcement, EMTs, and social workers.
Guests on this episode include Thom Dunn from the University of Northern Colorado and Anthony Hall from the DC Department of Behavioral Health.
While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.
Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.
If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.
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How do we translate policy solutions into practice? Avni Kulkarni and Sania Ali learn about the next generation of mental health policy: the certified behavioral health clinic (CCBHC).
CCBHCs are one-stop shops for integrated mental health care that are tailoring treatment to fit you rather than fitting yourself into treatment.
Sania and Avni speak with two CCBHC executives hailing from two very different parts of the country: New York City and Nowata, Oklahoma.
Guests on this episode include Yaberci Perez-Cubillan from Acacia Network and Josh Cantwell from Grand Lake Mental Health Center.
While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.
Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.
Related Links:
If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.
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Integrated care is eliminating the goose chase for mental health services. On today's episode of While We Wait, Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni interview two members of the Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) Task Force about the current state of our mental health care system and policy solutions.
The interview points to a promising opportunity to coordinate mental health services with the foundation of health care services: primary care.
Guests on this episode include Kenna Chic and Marilyn Serafini from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.
Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.
Related Links:
If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.
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DISCLAIMER: This episode contains outdated and potentially offensive language to describe mental illness.
While We Wait co-hosts Avni Kulkarni and Sania Ali step outside the hospital and dive headfirst into the archives to learn about a seismic shift in mental health policy that’s left the health care system scrambling to fill the cracks for decades. They examine words like “parity,” “deinstitutionalization,” and “non-quantitative treatment limits.”
Listen as Sania and Avni go back in time to make sense of it all and trace the roots of the mental health boarding crisis.
The featured guest on this episode is Andrew Sperling, former director of legislative advocacy from the National Alliance of Mental Illness and current senior director of government affairs at Intra-Cellular Therapies.
While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.
Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.
Related Links:
If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.
Join Health Affairs Insider.
DISCLAIMER: This episode contains information about suicide. If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.
In today’s episode, Avni Kulkarni and Sania Ali head to the emergency department (ED) to learn how our nation’s safety net is struggling to keep up with the increasing demand for emergency psychiatric treatment. They learn about the boarding crisis through the lens of a clinician discussing how they decide which patients need inpatient admission and what tools they can use to treat mental health crises.
Guests on this episode include Shilpa Patel and Meghan Schott from Children's National Hospital.
While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.
Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.
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Welcome to While We Wait, the second series from Health Affairs Pathways. In this series, Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni explore the mental health boarding crisis.
To start, Avni and Sania introduce you to the story of Karin Broadhurst and her son who waited for 36 days in the hospital for psychiatric treatment in Boston.
Long delays in care are commonplace for mental health patients who arrive in the emergency department (ED). Rather than a safety net, the ED can be a place with no progression in treatment where patients wait for change. Why? Because a mental health emergency can be an emergency that the ED isn’t ready for.
The Mental Health Boarding Crisis refers to the long-standing, nationwide problem of holding patients for hours, days, or even weeks in emergency departments and other observational settings because there are no available inpatient psychiatric beds in the hospital.
Guests on this episode include Karin Broadhurst, Dr. Patricia Ibeziako from Boston Children's Hospital, and Massachusetts State Senator Cindy Friedman.
While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.
Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.
Related Links:
If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.
This week, we begin the second season of Health Affairs Pathways. Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni present "While We Wait," a look at mental health boarding in the emergency department.
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In the final episode of Piecemeal, Dr. Lalita Abhyankar discusses the delicate balance between physician burnout, autonomy, employment, quality of care, negotiating power, and the continuity of the physician-patient relationship.
Guests include Dr. Jonathan Zhang from McMaster University; Dr. Farzad Mostashari, CEO of Aledade; Dr. Umar Bowers from Dawson Med; and Dr. Kyle Leggot from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Piecemeal was produced by Dr. Lalita Abhyankar for Health Affairs.
Works Cited:
Music produced by So Brownand Jack Mason.
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In the penultimate episode of Piecemeal, Dr. Lalita Abhyankar interviews Dr. Cory Capps from Bates White Economic Consulting to dive into vertical integration, antitrust policy, the challenges of antitrust enforcement in the health care space, and what might be next.
Piecemeal was produced by Dr. Lalita Abhyankar for Health Affairs.
Works Cited:
Music produced by So Brownand Jack Mason.
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Who do you want your physician to be employed by? That's the question Lawrence Casalino from the Weill Cornell School of Medicine asks at the top of the latest Piecemeal episode.
In this episode, Dr. Lalita Abhyankar explores the relationship between negotiating power among large provider groups and insurers, capitation, the role of private equity in the health care system and independent primary care, and consolidation in the primary care market.
Guests include Lawrence Casalino from Weill Cornell School of Medicine; Shawn Martin, CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians; Gail Guerrero and Cathy Romero from Gila Valley Clinic; and Dr. Kyle Leggot from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Piecemeal was produced by Dr. Lalita Abhyankar for Health Affairs.
Music produced by So Brownand Jack Mason.
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In this episode of Piecemeal, Dr. Lalita Abhyankar discusses the ongoing organizational pressures that independent primary care practices face in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and how some pivoted their business models.
Guests include Wayne Strouse, Tina Philip, Gail Guerrero and Cathy Romero from Gila Valley Clinic, and Arun Villivalam from Los Gatos Doc.
Piecemeal was produced by Dr. Lalita Abhyankar for Health Affairs.
Music produced by So Brownand Jack Mason.
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On the second episode of Piecemeal, Dr. Lalita Abhyankar explores the policy issues that promote health care consolidation. She explores the fee-for-service payment model, various value-based payment models, the challenges of telehealth, payment reimbursement negotiations, and the complex balance of managing patient visits.
Guests include Dr. Farzad Mostashari, CEO of Aledade; Dr. Gary Price, President of The Physicians Foundation; and Dr. Kyle Leggot from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Piecemeal was produced by Dr. Lalita Abhyankar for Health Affairs.
Works Cited:
Music produced by So Brownand Jack Mason.
Join Health Affairs Insider.
Welcome to Health Affairs Pathways.
Health Affairs Pathways explores the avenues and alleyways of the health care system through a variety of storytelling – from investigative journalism and health policy explainers to long-form interviews.
Unique series are created by fellows at the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program, designed to support early to mid-stage professionals pursue an audio project, tell a unique health care story, and highlight voices that may not be heard otherwise.
Our first series, Piecemeal, is from Lalita Abhyankar, a physician and storyteller based in San Francisco, CA. Her series examines how consolidation in health care is affecting independent primary care. Guests on this episode include Dr. Wayne Strouse and Shawn Martin, CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Piecemeal was produced by Dr. Lalita Abhyankar for Health Affairs.
Works Cited:
Music produced by So Brownand Jack Mason.
Welcome to Health Affairs Pathways, which explores the avenues and alleyways of the health care system through a variety of storytelling – from investigative journalism and health policy explainers to long-form interviews.
Our first season is a six-part series from Lalita Abhyankar, a physician and storyteller based in San Francisco, CA. Her series, titled Piecemeal, examines how consolidation in health care is affecting independent primary care.
The first episode will be published on January 26, 2022.