Once A Luxury, Concierge Primary Care Is Becoming More Affordable As Practice Grows In Popularity

NPR: Direct Primary Care, More Affordable 'Concierge' Medicine, Is Hard To Scale Up 
Some people pay $200 a month on the golf course or a fancy cable TV package, says David Westbrook, a hospital executive in Kansas City, Mo. His splurge? He pays Dr. John Dunlap $133 a month for what he considers exceptional primary care. "I have the resources to spend a little extra money on my health care to my primary care physician relationship," Westbrook says. "Because I have that access — and am very proactive in managing my personal health — I think I'm going to be healthier." (Simmons-Duffin, 1/13)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Sue To Stop Site-Neutral Payment Policy In 2020
The American Hospital Association, Association of American Medical Colleges and several hospital systems on Monday sued the Trump administration over its site-neutral payment policy for 2020. The lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal actions hospitals have taken to fight the pay cuts. A federal judge ruled in September that the Trump administration had exceeded its authority when it implemented its so-called site-neutral payment policy at off-campus hospital clinics in 2019, but the administration included the policy in its final 2020 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule anyway. (Cohrs, 1/13)

Modern Healthcare: Self-Insured Employers Go Looking For Value-Based Deals
A growing number of self-insured employer groups are pushing to transform how healthcare is priced, steering their employees to high-value providers and negotiating prices as a percentage of Medicare payment rates. Faced with sharp premium increases—more than double the rate of inflation in 2019, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation—smaller and midsize employers increasingly want to identify lower-cost, high-quality hospitals and physician groups and design their health plans to encourage employees to go to those providers. They aim to narrow the large gap between commercial and Medicare payment rates. Public and private employers in Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, Montana, Texas and Wisconsin are adopting that approach. (Meyer, 1/11)

PBS NewsHour: The Hidden Health Costs Of Eviction
Millions of Americans are forced from their homes every year. Evictions are usually considered in economic terms -- an outcome of housing supply and income levels -- but what about their physical and emotional impact? Research increasingly shows housing insecurity takes an enormous toll on people’s health. (Brangham and Fritz, 1/13)

Kaiser Health News: Loopholes Limit New California Law To Guard Against Lofty Air Ambulance Bills
Kathleen Hoechlin lost control as she crested a small jump on her final ski run of the day at California’s Mammoth Mountain two years ago. She landed hard on her back, crushing one of the vertebra in her lower spine “like a Cheerio,” she said. An air ambulance flew Hoechlin, then 32, to an airport near Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California’s Inland Empire. There she underwent emergency 12-hour surgery to remove bone fragments and replace the crushed vertebra with a metal cage that was fused to the rest of her spine with rods and screws to provide structure and stability. (Andrews, 1/14)

Columbus Dispatch: Disabled Couples Navigate Red Tape On Way To Altar
The Scioto County couple, both of whom have severe developmental disabilities, finally found a way to wed and combine households without losing a big chunk of the disability benefits they rely on. But the so-called marriage penalty remains an obstacle for many couples in the United States. The new Mr. and Mrs. Adams, who took their fight to marry public with an online petition drive in 2016, vow to keep pushing for what they and others see as a matter of civil rights. (Price, 1/13)