HSPP / Health Services, Policy & Practice

Medicaid, the largest payer for long-term care facilities, covers around 2 in 3 nursing home residents, and reducing dollars to the massive, yet already resource-limited, program could have disastrous effects on older adults’ health, safety and quality of life. Vincent Mor, professor of health services, policy and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, comments.

Professor Alyssa Bilinski has found that systematically including pregnant participants in trials would speed up the detection of adverse effects and increase uptake of beneficial medications.

A new study about affordability standards for hospitals in Rhode Island was recently released by Brown University. The study looks into how these standards enacted by the state resulted in lower prices in hospitals and insurance premiums. Andrew Ryan, director of Brown’s Center for Advancing Health Policy Through Research, joined 12 News at 4 Friday to talk about the findings.

With private equity firms gobbling up health care facilities at a skyrocketing pace, researchers in the School of Public Health are working to uncover how rapid health care consolidation impacts patients, prices and physician practices.

In 2010, Rhode Island attempted a lively experiment in health care costs by limiting how much hospitals could increase the prices they charge. Fifteen years later, a new study led by a team of Brown University researchers suggests the hospital price growth mandate worked, not only cutting hospital prices directly, but also flowing downstream to lower consumer spending on health plan premiums.

Next week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, 193 member countries of the World Health Organization (with the U.S. notably absent) are expected to adopt the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Agreement, also known as the Pandemic Treaty. In anticipation of its adoption, the final agreement has been celebrated as a triumph of multilateralism. The co-chairs of the negotiations described the agreement as a plan to “protect future generations from the suffering and losses [experienced] during the COVID-19 pandemic” and to ensure that in the next pandemic, “the response will be faster, more effective and more equitable.”

Professor Jason D. Buxbaum explains how billions in federal relief improved hospitals' financial stability during the pandemic but did not result in increased spending on patient care or staffing.

Five years after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, School of Public Health experts look to Washington as they weigh in on where our biosurveillance tools and preparedness systems stand now: What’s changed, what hasn’t and what must be built to make us ready for the next pandemic?

Avoidable deaths are rising in the U.S. while they’re decreasing in other high-income nations. It’s a worrisome trend, which is partly responsible for the growing gap in life expectancy between the U.S. and its peers.

By getting serious about accelerating emissions reductions, we will see immediate health benefits in communities across the region.

Everyone knows that Europeans tend to live longer than Americans. But a new study has a surprising twist: Even the richest Americans only live about as long as the poorest western Europeans.

In a Cabinet meeting, Elon Musk defended the actions his team has made to cut government jobs, but public health experts say Musk is wrong. USAID's Ebola prevention efforts have been largely frozen since the agency was mostly shuttered last month. Laura Barrón-López discussed more with Dr. Craig Spencer, who survived Ebola after treating patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders in 2014.

With eight months on the job, RIDOH Director Dr. Jerome Larkin visited the School of Public Health to discuss what makes the Rhode Island Department of Health unique nationwide.

The first study to evaluate the racial and ethnic diversity of physicians in private insurance networks contributes to the larger conversation about diversity in the physician workforce.

Jared Perkins, director of health policy strategy at Brown's Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research, offers insights into the challenges of influencing health policy under a shifting political landscape and how researchers help shape federal health care decisions.

For older patients with dementia, can beloved music from their teenage years provide comfort in moments of anxiety and stress? Professor Ellen McCreedy studied a personalized music intervention’s power to improve the quality of life for older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias.

Health insurers and hospitals increasingly treat patients less as humans in need of care than consumers who generate profit.

We spoke with Dr. Michael Silverstein, director of the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown and vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—about the rise of syphilis and the task force’s recommendations.

With the recent conclusion of the 2024 election, the spotlight now shifts back to Congress as it enters the final weeks of the 118th session. While time is limited and there is much to accomplish, Congress has a critical opportunity to reshape health care affordability, enhance transparency, reduce costs, and lay a strong foundation for future reforms through the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act (LCMT) and Health Care PRICE Transparency Act 2.0. Taking action on key provisions during the lame-duck session could serve as a catalyst for addressing issues such as health care consolidation, cost disparities, and opaque pricing structures before turning the page to a new legislative chapter.

What is the cost of homelessness in Rhode Island? Do we measure it in dollars, hours, square footage? Or is it measured by sleepless nights, persistent coughs, uncertain futures? The reasons Rhode Islanders remain unhoused are varied, but the results are the same: marginalization and the fight to keep a stable footing.

With over half of America’s doctors now employed by large health systems rather than physician-owned practices, a team of Brown researchers is examining how this trend toward consolidation impacts health care costs, patient access and market competition.

A decades-long debate about prescribing habits in long-term care facilities is renewed with heartening evidence.

Meehir Dixit ’24, a newly minted Brown alumnus with a concentration in public health, has already found a home as a research assistant in the School of Public Health’s Center for Gerontology & Health Research and Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research (CAHPR).

The School of Public Health’s newest research center focuses on health care cost, access and outcomes by comparing data across the globe.

Brown armed him with the tools needed to analyze and improve health policy, but Chima Ndumele’s passion for righting injustice keeps him looking forward, focused on improving the lives of low-income Americans.

After Joe Silva graduates from Brown’s School of Public Health, he will begin a two year role as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer for the U.S. Government.

Brown researchers examined hundreds of thousands of veterans’ health records to determine if exposure to burn pits on military bases correlates with elevated risk for respiratory and cardiac health conditions.

Camping on city streets, open-air drug use, and crime are generating fierce pushback against harm reduction efforts like decriminalization. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Geronimo Bejarano, originally from Colombia, stood out in a field of 2,323 graduate applicants to win merit-based fellowship for immigrants and children of immigrants

Despite being on the front lines of the climate crisis, the health care sector is also one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. A new study from Brown researchers looks at these decarbonizing efforts across the globe.

Four years out from the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic, a new study explores the extent to which COVID-19 and influenza vaccines are being distributed and employed simultaneously, particularly among high-risk populations.

New research points to October as the sweet spot, at least for kids. But it’s not too late to get one, even now.

Accomplished physician, scholar and public health expert Ateev Mehrotra M.D., MPH, will join Brown's School of Public Health on July 1, 2024.

Every health care model involves people doing their best to balance competing priorities in the face of limited resources. In other words, every system involves tradeoffs.

When humanitarian catastrophes erupt around the world, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of suffering. How do aid workers navigate the immense challenges in order to jump into action—juggling safety, equipment and logistics?