Presentations: UPenn PRC Food/Obesity Symposium April 2017

Click the links below to view the a pdf of each presenter’s slides. You can find more information on the symposium here.

 

What Do Republican Doctors Think of New Health Care Legislation? PRC David Grande in Wash Post/The Monkey Cage

In a Washington Post The Monkey Cage analysis, PRC Core Lead David Grande, MD, MPA, and Craig Pollack, MD, MHS, examine survey responses of doctors to changes on pre-existing conditions in the House bill which repeals the Affordable Care Act.  “As physicians ourselves, we understand that serious illness can strike anyone, as Jimmy Kimmel movingly pointed out. Physicians may also have firsthand experience of the barriers that many patients used to face in securing and retaining insurance coverage because of their preexisting conditions before the ACA was introduced…Even physicians who were in favor of scaling back or repealing the ACA say that scrapping protections for people with preexisting conditions is the wrong way to improve health care.”

PRC Researcher Daniel Polsky on the Economics of the Affordable Care Act

  PRC Researcher Daniel Polsky, PhD, MPP, and other Senior Fellows at the Leonard Davis Institute at the University of Pennsylvania weigh in on the economic and policy issues surrounding changes to the Affordable Care Act.

In analyzing new legislation passed by the House of Representatives, Polsky says “the bill creates a host of other economic problems. Insurance becomes even less affordable for the old, sick, and low-income.”

Replacing the Affordable Care Act – a JAMA Viewpoint by PRC Director Kevin Volpp

In the April 3 issue of JAMA, UPenn PRC Director Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD, and Jonathan S. Skinner, PhD, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, discuss how research about behavioral economics in health care is useful when considering the challenges of replacing the Affordable Care Act.

Noting that “incentives to encourage healthy individuals to sign up for health insurance can be described as either carrots or sticks”, Volpp and Skinner observe that “the first principle from behavioral economics research is that carrots do not work nearly as well as sticks.”  Research suggests that individuals tend to favor immediate gratification over long-term consequences, which is why young adults historically are less inclined to enroll in insurance plans and why many people are frustrated paying premiums for coverage they may never use. Volpp and Skinner note “health insurance is an 80-20 proposition; 20% of enrollees account for 80% of costs. If the least healthy patients can be moved off of the exchanges, this will allow for a substantial decline in premiums on the exchange for the 80% healthier people who remain” and that lowering health insurance premiums would make a difference.

Public Health Researchers – Meet CORIDOR, the CDC’s new online resource database

The CDC is pleased to announce the launch of CORIDOR,  the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s (NCCDPHP) Collection of Online Resources & Inventory Database.  CORIDOR  is an organized and readily accessible source for public health practitioners to use in planning, implementation, and evaluation of state and national chronic disease prevention and health promotion initiatives. The resources included are primarily practice-based and represent science and practice promoted by CDC and CDC funded partners to address chronic disease conditions and risk factors. Tools include model policies and programs, guides, toolkits, and other resources for a variety of audiences with a range of skills.

 

Coming in April!!! PRC Symposium: Accelerating Policies & Research on Food Access, Diet, and Obesity Prevention

 

On Friday, April 28th, the University of Pennsylvania Prevention Research Center is hosting a symposium: “Accelerating Policies & Research on Food Access, Diet, and Obesity Prevention.” This one-day interdisciplinary event highlights the most current research on food access, diet, and obesity.  Distinguished scholars and leaders in the fields of public health and nutrition will focus on bridging the gap between research and practice. For more information and to register, go to:  https://upennprcsymposium.splashthat.com/

 

 

A View from the Front Line — Physicians’ Perspectives on ACA Repeal in NEJM. David Grande, MD

David Grande, MD, MPA

In a February 2017 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, PRC Core Lead David Grande, MD, MPH, and colleagues present findings for an updated survey on how health care providers view the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.  Findings from a 2015 survey provided the authors with a baseline upon which to measure attitude changes as providers became more experienced with the ACA.  “Given that the political and policy landscape changed dramatically over the ensuing months, and that physicians were gaining more experience with the ACA’s provisions, we performed our own survey, by mail, of PCPs from December 2016 through January 2017 to assess their perspectives on the ACA and specific policy options put forth in recent public debate. One thousand physicians, including physicians trained in internal medicine, pediatricians, geriatricians, and family practitioners, were randomly sampled from the American Medical Association (AMA) Masterfile, which contains information on AMA members as well as nonmembers. Physicians received up to two mailings and a telephone call, with an option to complete the survey online. A $2 incentive was provided in the first mailing. Overall, 426 physicians responded to the survey.”

Federal Law Fix Needed for Colorectal Cancer Screening: PRC Researcher Chyke Doubeni

Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer about a loophole in the Affordable Care Act which disadvantages those who need colorectal cancer screening most,  PRC Researcher Chyke A. Doubeni, MD, suggests that “this unfortunate scenario occurs in part because the U.S. Congress unfairly limits the ability of low-income Medicare beneficiaries to receive screening. This compounds other barriers and perpetuates long-standing disparities in mortality from colon cancer for seniors.”

Doubeni notes that misclassifiying colonoscopy as a “one-time activity” rather than including it in the screening menu of “a series of clinical activities involved in identifying and testing patients and performing diagnostic confirmation when necessary” makes the test available only to Medicare patients who can afford supplemental policies.

The Complexities of Shopping for Health Care: PRC Researcher David Grande

In philly.com’s Health Cents blog, PRC Researcher David Grande, MD, MPA, looks at the complexities of shopping for health care. Grande shares his own family’s experience of trying to make the right – and affordable – decisions in an urgent care crisis to exemplify how difficult it is to collect information about medical expenses and choices, especially from insurance providers.

PRC Researcher Chyke Doubeni on Health Disparities for Colorectal Cancer Screening

 

In the May 2016 issue of Gastroenterology, UPenn PRC Researcher Chyke Doubeni examines the barriers to screenings which provide early identification and prevention of colorectal cancer for low-income patients.  Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States; about 70% of those deaths occur in Medicare age-eligible patients.

Doubeni reviews the Affordable Care Act provisions intended to benefit low-income patients and examines why providers’ interpretations of those benefits have lead to confusion about insurance status of patients, insurance coverage for different steps of screening procedures, and reimbursement expectations.  Doubeni’s recommendations include Congressional action to amend and clarify the provisions.

 

One Year After Disneyland: Buttenheim & Asch on Leveraging Behavioral Insights to Promote Vaccine Acceptance

In a JAMA Pediatrics Viewpoint, UPenn PRC Researchers Alison Buttenheim, PhD, and David Asch, MD, look at the 2014 Disney measles outbreak and what it showed about the effect of vaccination refusal on disease risk. Since the outbreak, parents continue to skip vaccinating their children, affecting “everyone by weakening the herd immunity conferred by widespread vaccination,” according to the authors.

Buttenheim and Asch identify interventions which might make the reasons for vaccinating more salient to parents and health behavior theories which recognize the complex ways people make decisions about their children’s well-being. “There is so much more known today than 2 decades ago about not just the errors in people’s judgment, but how predictable those errors are and therefore how well they can be anticipated. This knowledge should be used to promote health for individuals and populations.”