Elsa Pearson Sites

Health policy for @VeteransHealth + @HarvardChanSPH
Words in @NPR, @UpshotNYT, @statnews, @usatoday, @bostonglobe
Forever yelling about mergers + bipartisanship

[Jose Figueroa, MD, MPH @joefigs2]

There’s an emergence of Medicare Advantage plans aggressively enrolling Veterans.

(e.g., “Honor Plan, Patriot Plan”)

Our new @Health_Affairs study highlights why we think this is a troubling trend leading to billions in wasteful federal spending.

https://t.co/NS9xwAEL6q
🧵 1/5

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

yes yes yes.

[Joseph Allen @j_g_allen]

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

[National Weather Service @NWS]

#Milton is an extremely dangerous, life-threatening storm. LEAVE NOW if you are in an evacuation zone; there will not be time to leave on Wednesday. Get help evacuating: https://t.co/A1LbnPkVTW

[Kevin Griffith @AssumeNormality]

Supply of Post-discharge Care: A Key to Reducing Hospital Readmissions - new @IncidentalEcon post based on some of my past research!

https://t.co/XZV1YdDXNN

[Katherine O'Malley @komalleybusph]

My piece on elder abuse and related mental health impacts out in @BehaviorHlthNws special summer issue!

@BUSPH @BU_Tweets

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

This is good progress! Nice to see the new buyers are all local (ish), too. Hospital mergers/acquisitions are always complicated, but stability for MA residents is the number one priority right now.

[The Boston Globe @BostonGlobe]

State leaders said preliminary deals have been reached to keep open six Steward Health Care hospitals in Massachusetts, including a plan for the Healey administration to take control of Steward’s flagship St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center by eminent domain. https://t.co/QgYLxFXk7y

[Avis Favaro @Avis_Favaro]

For those who live with an EpiPen for allergic reactions, how about a needle free, nasal spray? It's on it's way - https://t.co/Ay6ehbzywS via @statnews @isabellacueto #anaphalyxis #allergies

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

I wrote about the need for top-down harm reduction for social media and this law is a good step in that direction.
https://t.co/iD77VhYziX

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

This is great news!
https://t.co/tTSMJoVfDN

[Kaitlan Collins @kaitlancollins]

Nearly 40 people were in the Oval Office as President Biden delivered his address explaining his exit, including his children, grandchildren and top two advisers who deliberated with him as he decided to leave the 2024 race.

[André Picard @picardonhealth]

Why many nonprofit (wink, wink) hospitals in the U.S. are rolling in money. Legal maneuvering, industry lobbying and lax IRS oversight leave lots of room for “operating surpluses,” by @RosenthalHealth https://t.co/gRKf0VsrwP via @washingtonpost

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

Great to see FCC vote 5-0 today to slash prison and jail calling rates.

Historically, many voice and video call contracts were awarded to the vendor that offered the highest kickback to the corrections dept. Vendors made these payments by charging those incarcerated astronomical rates.

In 2018, phone calls could cost families $1+ per minute. The system was designed to maximize revenue rather than preserve familial connections. With this order, following up on 2022 bipartisan legislation, phone calls will be capped at 7¢ and video calls at 16¢ per minute at most facilities.

A few have gone even further and made calls free, recognizing the potential value on behavior both while and after incarceration. We @Arnold_Ventures are funding research to test this theory.

Congrats to our grantee @PrisonPolicy that has spearheaded this fight for more than a decade.

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

I have a new article out in the @projo about the proposed sale of Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center in RI.

"The sale...doesn’t fit into the nice, clean “mergers and acquisitions are bad” box...What it is is complicated."

https://t.co/hdCJ0ih6XW

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

I have a new article out in the @projo about the proposed sale of Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center in RI.

"The sale...doesn’t fit into the nice, clean “mergers and acquisitions are bad” box...What it is is complicated."

https://t.co/hdCJ0ih6XW

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

@IanDon @AGNeronha Thanks for sharing my piece! I think that's a great third option. It's curious to me that no one else has jumped in the ring thus far though.

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

*sigh*

[KFF Health News @KFFHealthNews]

In Terre Haute, Ind., two rival hospitals want to merge, but similar hospital consolidations in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina have resulted in government reports documenting diminished care.

Read more today's #HealthBrief by @samanthann. ⤵️ https://t.co/0kIYVFW4M0

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

And for @CAPCpalliative:
https://t.co/qljbvW6gEh

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

This is exactly right - the nonphysical side effects of health care are huge and must be considered.

Great piece @sarklei

[TIME @TIME]

Treatment can cause financial toxicity, or hardship due to medical bills and out-of-pocket expenses
https://t.co/nMvB7ZfWyT

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

I've written about this a few times myself. For @statnews:

https://t.co/S34BEzrs0w

[Elsa Pearson Sites @epearsonbusph]

It's OK to learn from our experiences. It should not be a partisan issue that we didn't do everything right during the COVID pandemic. The country was literally watching "petri dish science" in real time -- the mistakes, the unknowns, the learning as we go.

[Ashish K. Jha @ashishkjha]

Watching the hearings with Dr. Tony Fauci today, I'm saddened by what is not happening

There are real, substantive issues about how we responded to the pandemic in 2020

How our failures in surveillance and testing meant some of the tools we used were likely too broad and blunt

The challenges our country has in getting rapid testing scaled up

How we didn't run enough scientific studies quickly enough to both understand airborne transmission and when/how masking might be useful

How slow we were to pivot when it was clear that opening up schools was largely safe

How we lack any real long-term program and infrastructure for vaccinating adults

And so much more!

These are not partisan questions.

They highlight the challenges our country faced -- some of these issues are better and some of them still need work

Because there will be more pandemics

And we have to do better in responding to them