John McConnell
@kjmcconnell.bsky.social
Medicaid + Health Policy Researcher at the Center for Health Effectiveness at Oregon Health & Science University
Reposted by John McConnell
The Senate HELP Committee has jurisdiction over NIH.
GOP members of the committee represent AK, AL, IN, FL, KS, KY, LA, ME, MO, OH, and SC.
Research universities and hospitals in those states need to be extra loud.
GOP members of the committee represent AK, AL, IN, FL, KS, KY, LA, ME, MO, OH, and SC.
Research universities and hospitals in those states need to be extra loud.
February 8, 2025 at 1:24 AM
The Senate HELP Committee has jurisdiction over NIH.
GOP members of the committee represent AK, AL, IN, FL, KS, KY, LA, ME, MO, OH, and SC.
Research universities and hospitals in those states need to be extra loud.
GOP members of the committee represent AK, AL, IN, FL, KS, KY, LA, ME, MO, OH, and SC.
Research universities and hospitals in those states need to be extra loud.
Reposted by John McConnell
Democrats are calling on Trump officials to “restore full operations at NIH,” warning that it’s threatening medical research.
“Without quick corrective action, the consequences of further disruption could be disastrous,” @raskin.house.gov @vanhollen.senate.gov and Sen. Alsobrooks write.
“Without quick corrective action, the consequences of further disruption could be disastrous,” @raskin.house.gov @vanhollen.senate.gov and Sen. Alsobrooks write.
January 27, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Democrats are calling on Trump officials to “restore full operations at NIH,” warning that it’s threatening medical research.
“Without quick corrective action, the consequences of further disruption could be disastrous,” @raskin.house.gov @vanhollen.senate.gov and Sen. Alsobrooks write.
“Without quick corrective action, the consequences of further disruption could be disastrous,” @raskin.house.gov @vanhollen.senate.gov and Sen. Alsobrooks write.
Reposted by John McConnell
Cancer researchers said grants were on hold.
Health briefings were abruptly canceled.
The CDC’s famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report didn’t publish as scheduled.
Our look at the sweeping consequences of the Trump admin’s “pause” of health communications.
with @lenasun.bsky.social + pals
Health briefings were abruptly canceled.
The CDC’s famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report didn’t publish as scheduled.
Our look at the sweeping consequences of the Trump admin’s “pause” of health communications.
with @lenasun.bsky.social + pals
Health researchers alarmed as Trump administration pauses travel, communications
The halt has frozen research grants, meetings and key health updates. “Everything is basically in chaos,” said one cancer researcher.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 23, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Cancer researchers said grants were on hold.
Health briefings were abruptly canceled.
The CDC’s famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report didn’t publish as scheduled.
Our look at the sweeping consequences of the Trump admin’s “pause” of health communications.
with @lenasun.bsky.social + pals
Health briefings were abruptly canceled.
The CDC’s famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report didn’t publish as scheduled.
Our look at the sweeping consequences of the Trump admin’s “pause” of health communications.
with @lenasun.bsky.social + pals
Reposted by John McConnell
Reposted by John McConnell
Check out the first episode of this PBS NewsHour series on the social safety net. I’m always eager to see this kind of important information shared with the public. I’m glad I could contribute my perspective (my comments begin around 2:49 mins) www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
Exploring America's social safety net and the political fights around it
Our new series, "America’s Safety Net," is focused on the complex web of programs meant to help Americans in need. Over the coming weeks, we’ll take an in-depth look at the different forms of welfare ...
www.pbs.org
March 5, 2024 at 8:11 PM
Check out the first episode of this PBS NewsHour series on the social safety net. I’m always eager to see this kind of important information shared with the public. I’m glad I could contribute my perspective (my comments begin around 2:49 mins) www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
Reposted by John McConnell
1/ @vinisingh.bsky.social and I have heavily updated our NBER working paper, now titled "Rationing by Race": www.nber.org/papers/w30380
The paper is about how system stressors - here #hospital capacity shocks - lead to *consequential* #rationing of resources by race rather than need.
The paper is about how system stressors - here #hospital capacity shocks - lead to *consequential* #rationing of resources by race rather than need.
February 29, 2024 at 5:34 PM
1/ @vinisingh.bsky.social and I have heavily updated our NBER working paper, now titled "Rationing by Race": www.nber.org/papers/w30380
The paper is about how system stressors - here #hospital capacity shocks - lead to *consequential* #rationing of resources by race rather than need.
The paper is about how system stressors - here #hospital capacity shocks - lead to *consequential* #rationing of resources by race rather than need.
Reposted by John McConnell
This letter to CMS from AcademyHealth about the data access debacle is quite good I think
academyhealth.org/sites/defaul...
academyhealth.org/sites/defaul...
February 27, 2024 at 6:16 PM
This letter to CMS from AcademyHealth about the data access debacle is quite good I think
academyhealth.org/sites/defaul...
academyhealth.org/sites/defaul...
Lots of other issues to address too: (1) unclear if you can use Stata or R without it being cost-prohibitive (current use a "credits" system which can get blown through quickly); (2) looks like you can't use GitHub; (3) user-defined packages in or Stata may be cumbersome/impossible to implement. Etc
A question that came up in hallway conversation yesterday was basically alon the lines of "Has CMS considered what kind of computing capacity would be required of the VRDC to absorb 100% of the research currently being done using physical files? 50%? 25%?"
February 13, 2024 at 2:45 PM
Lots of other issues to address too: (1) unclear if you can use Stata or R without it being cost-prohibitive (current use a "credits" system which can get blown through quickly); (2) looks like you can't use GitHub; (3) user-defined packages in or Stata may be cumbersome/impossible to implement. Etc
Reposted by John McConnell
"Researchers incensed over CMS data access change" (accurate), with quotes from @asacarny.bsky.social and @aschwartz.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
February 13, 2024 at 12:59 PM
"Researchers incensed over CMS data access change" (accurate), with quotes from @asacarny.bsky.social and @aschwartz.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
If you're an R shop like ours, with lots of TAF data and projects, it looks like the annual fees could be over $200K (e.g. 5 projects *$13K + 10 analyst seats*$15K). It also upends 5 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to create an efficient software/hardware infrastructure to manage TAF.
Just got the email from CMS that they are planning to discontinue physical access to the Medicare/Medicaid research files and force everyone to use the (incredibly expensive) VRDC. In the transition, they'll charge physical data users $10K/year to renew DUAs. This is bad.
February 12, 2024 at 8:02 PM
If you're an R shop like ours, with lots of TAF data and projects, it looks like the annual fees could be over $200K (e.g. 5 projects *$13K + 10 analyst seats*$15K). It also upends 5 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to create an efficient software/hardware infrastructure to manage TAF.
Reposted by John McConnell
Additional issues:
1) ridiculous cost to have additional users peek at data. so a strong incentive for PIs to never touch data at all
2) hard for institutions to set up data infrastructure for folks, e.g. make harmonized files many projects can reuse
1) ridiculous cost to have additional users peek at data. so a strong incentive for PIs to never touch data at all
2) hard for institutions to set up data infrastructure for folks, e.g. make harmonized files many projects can reuse
February 12, 2024 at 6:58 PM
Additional issues:
1) ridiculous cost to have additional users peek at data. so a strong incentive for PIs to never touch data at all
2) hard for institutions to set up data infrastructure for folks, e.g. make harmonized files many projects can reuse
1) ridiculous cost to have additional users peek at data. so a strong incentive for PIs to never touch data at all
2) hard for institutions to set up data infrastructure for folks, e.g. make harmonized files many projects can reuse
Reposted by John McConnell
At a time when we should be democratizing access to data, CMS appears to be moving in the opposite direction.
This policy change will have a disproportionate impact on students and researchers at less well-resourced institutions.
This policy change will have a disproportionate impact on students and researchers at less well-resourced institutions.
February 12, 2024 at 7:01 PM
At a time when we should be democratizing access to data, CMS appears to be moving in the opposite direction.
This policy change will have a disproportionate impact on students and researchers at less well-resourced institutions.
This policy change will have a disproportionate impact on students and researchers at less well-resourced institutions.
Reposted by John McConnell
This policy change from CMS will do much to degrade the quality and timeliness of health policy research in the US.
While I understand the security concerns that motivated it, there has to be a middle ground that will efficiently balance security and access.
While I understand the security concerns that motivated it, there has to be a middle ground that will efficiently balance security and access.
Just got the email from CMS that they are planning to discontinue physical access to the Medicare/Medicaid research files and force everyone to use the (incredibly expensive) VRDC. In the transition, they'll charge physical data users $10K/year to renew DUAs. This is bad.
February 12, 2024 at 6:23 PM
This policy change from CMS will do much to degrade the quality and timeliness of health policy research in the US.
While I understand the security concerns that motivated it, there has to be a middle ground that will efficiently balance security and access.
While I understand the security concerns that motivated it, there has to be a middle ground that will efficiently balance security and access.
Does carving-in behavioral health lead to better outcomes for Medicaid enrollees? Our new paper published in JAMA Health Forum leverages a staggered rollout of integration, finding mostly null effects. Financial integration: perhaps necessary, but not sufficient. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Access, Utilization, and Quality of Behavioral Health Integration in Medicaid Managed Care
Explore the latest in national and global health policy, including health care pricing, delivery, access, quality, safety, equity, and reform.
jamanetwork.com
January 3, 2024 at 1:22 AM
Does carving-in behavioral health lead to better outcomes for Medicaid enrollees? Our new paper published in JAMA Health Forum leverages a staggered rollout of integration, finding mostly null effects. Financial integration: perhaps necessary, but not sufficient. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...