Newsletters
Follow the Money: Medicare Incentives, Private Equity Takeovers, and What They Mean for Patients
The newsletter features new studies on Medicare Advantage, revealing persistent disenrollment barriers, racial disparities in end-of-life care, and limited impact of supplemental benefits. It also reports rising physician turnover and fee hikes in PE-owned practices, the financialization of care, and growing PE presence across specialties like radiology and ophthalmology. Additionally, the newsletter includes state testimony on hospital payment caps, critiques of the MA Star Ratings system, and fresh analyses of hospital mergers, price variation, and proposals to strengthen public healthcare delivery - April 2025
The Impact of Hospital Payment Caps, PE’s Influence on Primary Care, and Using Patient Surveys in Risk Adjustment
This newsletter highlights studies on hospital payment caps that could save states billions, and improving Medicare Advantage risk adjustment by integrating patient surveys with diagnosis codes. It also explores physician diversity gaps in Medicare Advantage networks, the surge and effects of private equity acquisitions of behavioral health facilities and primary care practices, hospital upcoding contributing to $14.6 billion in inflated costs, and how system affiliations stabilize rural hospitals financially while raising patient costs - January 2025
The Impact of MA Vertical Integration, Medicare Fee Schedule Reforms, and Site-Neutral Payment Policies
This newsletter delves into the complexities of healthcare policy changes impacting Medicare spending, the shift towards physician-hospital integration, and the implications of site-neutral payments. It also explores state and federal policies affecting independent practices, noncompete clauses, and vertical integration in Medicare Advantage plans - October 2024
Private Equity's Expansion into Cardiology, the Impact of Bundled Payments, and Risk Adjustment in Medicare Advantage
Explore the latest findings from CAHPR on the growing PE interest in cardiology, UnitedHealthcare's ASC acquisitions, significant price disparities in hospital services, the limited impact of the End-Stage Renal Disease Treatment Choices model, and the financial challenges faced by MA enrollees, and more on health policy issues faced by the nation - July 2024
Effect of Hospital Price Caps, Tackling PE Influence, and Unveiling Medicare Disparities
This newsletter highlights our featured research of the quarter on the impact of hospital price caps in the state of Oregon. Other research and policy highlighted include the lifecycle of private equity investments in physician practices, ramifications of hospital-physician integration on primary care access, and characterizing beneficiary access and behavior in Medicare - April 2024
Billions in Medicare Overpayments, High Rates of MA Disenrollement, and the COVID-19 Impact
Research from CAHPR unravel the complexities of Medicare Advantage payments and the broader impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health strategies and healthcare workforce dynamics - January 2024
Improving Medicare Advantage
As the annual update on proposed payment rates and policies for MA unfolds, attention intensifies around initiatives aimed at improving the MA program. CAHPR identifies gaps in the current MA programs and offers potential legislative and regulatory reforms designed to enhance the MA program, drawing on robust, evidence-based policy research - January 2024
Medicare Advantage and Private Equity
CAHPR investigators expose significant overpayments to MA due to favorable selection, concerns about MA network adequacy for the most vulnerable populations, and the impact of private equity acquisitions on Medicare spending - October 2023