Alan Weil's guest appearances

Alan Weil

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Vikas Saini

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Jacob Bor

Douglas Holtz-Eakin

Donald Berwick

Joel Negin

Gary Gibbons

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Medicaid Transformation. 1115 waivers. Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs. Expansion. Contraction. We’ve been at this for a long time. Why isn’t Medicaid transformed already? Well… it turns out that this is really difficult work. First off, there are complex political and ideological issues. Even if we all agree that we want the best healthcare for every American – a conceptually easy outcome to rally behind – we don’t all agree on what that looks like, how to get there, or how to pay for it. Second, it takes a long time for policy levers to play out in the real world. That makes it exceedingly difficult to measure the success of our programs, which further exacerbates the first issue. Add in a bunch of multi-billion-dollar entrenched institutions, technology hurdles, and social determinants of health, and you are still just scratching the surface of the many issues that need to be addressed and aligned to “succeed”. But all is not lost. We’ve learned a lot over the past 30-40 years, and we’ve made progress in many areas. There are approaches and mental models that have led to certain levels of success. And today’s guest has been participating in and observing many of them over the past few decades. Today we talk with Alan Weil, Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs, the nation’s leading health policy journal.  Alan takes us through the history of Medicaid Transformation from the early 1980s on. We discuss the approaches taken, the thinking behind them, and the many factors that influenced their success. We explore the conflicts and hurdles, the friction and confounders, not to define a path forward, but to give the listener a more productive framing from which to build. This is admittedly a bit more of a philosophical discussion than what we usually have on this show. However, I feel we’ve taken a practical approach to the philosophical exploration and yielded actionable advice on how to adjust your frame. Please do let us know what you think!   For full show notes and links, visit: https://thehcbiz.com And of course, find everything from Health Affairs at: https://www.healthaffairs.org/

Medicaid Transformation. 1115 waivers. Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs. Expansion. Contraction. We’ve been at this for a long time. Why isn’t Medicaid transformed already? Well… it turns out that this is really difficult work. First off, there are complex political and ideological issues. Even if we all agree that we want the best healthcare for every American – a conceptually easy outcome to rally behind – we don’t all agree on what that looks like, how to get there, or how to pay for it. Second, it takes a long time for policy levers to play out in the real world. That makes it exceedingly difficult to measure the success of our programs, which further exacerbates the first issue. Add in a bunch of multi-billion-dollar entrenched institutions, technology hurdles, and social determinants of health, and you are still just scratching the surface of the many issues that need to be addressed and aligned to “succeed”. But all is not lost. We’ve learned a lot over the past 30-40 years, and we’ve made progress in many areas. There are approaches and mental models that have led to certain levels of success. And today’s guest has been participating in and observing many of them over the past few decades. Today we talk with Alan Weil, Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs, the nation’s leading health policy journal.  Alan takes us through the history of Medicaid Transformation from the early 1980s on. We discuss the approaches taken, the thinking behind them, and the many factors that influenced their success. We explore the conflicts and hurdles, the friction and confounders, not to define a path forward, but to give the listener a more productive framing from which to build. This is admittedly a bit more of a philosophical discussion than what we usually have on this show. However, I feel we’ve taken a practical approach to the philosophical exploration and yielded actionable advice on how to adjust your frame. Please do let us know what you think! For full show notes and links, visit: <a href="https://thehcbiz.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://thehcbiz.com</a> And of course, find everything from Health Affairs at: <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.healthaffairs.org/</a>

Medicaid Transformation: Past, Present, and Future with Alan Weil of Health Affairs

Health Affairs is one of the most important platforms in health care. No health policy journal gets cited more often — just ask Chief Justice John Roberts, who referenced it when issuing his pivotal Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare. And no journal has done more to chronicle the industry’s transformation, with a steady stream of blog posts, podcasts, and events that supplement its traditional peer-reviewed research. On this episode of PULSE CHECK, editor Alan Weil explains how it all comes together. Weil discusses how his career began as a 30-year-old in charge of a state Medicaid program (starts at the 2:15 mark), the importance of a “continuum of evidence” when making health policy (8:50), how he edits Health Affairs and decides what makes it in (15:45), how Health Affairs has become a bigger platform (28:00), and what he thinks of President Obama and other politicians publishing in academic journals (35:30). Also: Check out the abbreviated lightning round that starts at 38:15. We’d appreciate your help: Please share PULSE CHECK and rate us on your favorite podcast app! Have questions, suggestions or feedback? Email ddiamond@politico.com.

Health Affairs is one of the most important platforms in health care. No health policy journal gets cited more often — just ask Chief Justice John Roberts, who referenced it when issuing his pivotal Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare. And no journal has done more to chronicle the industry’s transformation, with a steady stream of blog posts, podcasts, and events that supplement its traditional peer-reviewed research. On this episode of PULSE CHECK, editor Alan Weil explains how it all comes together. Weil discusses how his career began as a 30-year-old in charge of a state Medicaid program (starts at the 2:15 mark), the importance of a “continuum of evidence” when making health policy (8:50), how he edits Health Affairs and decides what makes it in (15:45), how Health Affairs has become a bigger platform (28:00), and what he thinks of President Obama and other politicians publishing in academic journals (35:30). Also: Check out the abbreviated lightning round that starts at 38:15. We’d appreciate your help: Please share PULSE CHECK and rate us on your favorite podcast app! Have questions, suggestions or feedback? Email ddiamond@politico.com.

Health Affairs editor Alan Weil on shaping the policy debate

Alan Weil is the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy in Washington, DC. Stephen Morrissey, the interviewer, is the Managing Editor of the Journal. A. Weil. The Value of Federalism in Defining Essential Health Benefits. N Engl J Med 2012;366:679-81.

NEJM Interview: Alan Weil on the states' role in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.