Healthcare Policy | Penn Today

Gloved hands holding a syringe with groundwater with a background of a body of water

Toxins from the tap

In Pennsylvania and hundreds of other locations around the country, manmade chemicals known as PFAS have been found in drinking water. Howard Neukrug discusses the potential harm, how local and federal agencies are responding, and the many related questions that remain unanswered.

Making history at LDI: An interview with Rachel Werner

Rachel Werner is the first female and first physician-economist executive director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and a professor of both medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and health care management at the Wharton School.

ACA linked to reduced racial disparities, earlier diagnosis and treatment in cancer care

Justin Bekelman of the Perelman School of Medicine said a new study on ACA and Medicaid expansions found “specific impacts on patients with cancer,” but did not demonstrate that those impacts included longer survival times or improved quality of life.

Nursing facilities often discharge patients when co-pays kick in

Paula Chatterjee of the Perelman School of Medicine led a study that found “skilled nursing facilities are more likely to discharge economically vulnerable patients right before their copay kicks in.”

Pa. woman was convinced she bought Obamacare insurance. She got scammed by a look-alike website.

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel spoke about a class exercise in which he asks students to shop for health insurance using the government marketplace. When he attempted the assignment, he found it easy to accidentally use an unaffiliated site. “Unless you know what the right place looks like, what the offers are, they’ve done a very good job of making it look like it’s the [government] health insurance site.”

alarm clock in foreground with a doctor writing on a paper at a desk holding a pen in the background

Cancer screening rates decline when patients see doctors later in day

Compared to patients who see their primary care doctor earlier in the day, cancer screening rates decline significantly as the day goes on, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School.

Allison Hoffman and Jeb Bush seated on stage, talking

‘Health Policy and Politics in Turbulent Times’

Presidential Professor of Practice Jeb Bush joined Penn Law professor Allison Hoffman for a discussion on health reform in the current political landscape.

Wharton students with Ethiopian school children

In Ethiopia, new perspectives on the challenges of development

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel and Assistant Professor Heather Schofield led a group of Wharton students on a four-day trip to Ethiopia, for a close-up look at the African nation’s health, agricultural, business, and political sectors.

A.I. can improve health care. It also can be duped

The Wharton School’s Hamsa Bastani said it’s worth keeping an eye out for possible manipulations of health care billing with the introduction of artificial intelligence software.

A spinal surgery, a $101,000 bill, and a new law to prevent more surprises

Benjamin Chartock, a Ph.D. student in the Wharton School, said a new law in New York that created a binding arbitration process between hospitals and insurers is “keeping patients out of the middle of these billing disputes.”

Filters