Michael L. Barnett
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mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett
@mlbarnett.bsky.social
2.1K followers 860 following 140 posts

health policy researcher, primary care physician, dad

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Political science 62%
Sociology 22%
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mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · Sep 8
New paper w/ Brian McGarry, Ashvin Gandhi, and Drew Wilcock in @jamainternalmed.com!

Hospitals are complaining across the US that patients are "stuck" waiting for rehab beds at nursing homes when they are medically stable and ready for discharge. What is going on??

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Question Has hospital length of stay increased more for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries than for traditional Medicare beneficiaries since the COVID-19 pandemic?Findings In this cohort study involving more than 89 million hospitalizations from 2017 to the third quarter of 2023, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries experienced disproportionately greater increases in extended hospital stays, especially among those discharged to skilled nursing facilities.Meaning These findings suggest that the Medicare Advantage plan design and practices may contribute to hospital discharge delays, with implications for patient outcomes and hospital capacity as enrollment continues to rise.

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 22h
news story of the year 2025

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Will Lowe, Barrett , and 1 more

bharrap.bsky.social
Ben Harrap @bharrap.bsky.social · 1d
%notin% coming soon to an #rstats environment near you 🤩

developer.r-project.org/blosxom.cgi/...
Daily News: R-devel/NEWS
developer.r-project.org

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 5d
yeah, trying not to defend this strategy but it seems directionally better than mega gifts to rich institutions. it's head scratching that it seems like an anti-poverty gift but will include so many households where $250 is a drop in the bucket. why bother?

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 5d
i don't know the answer to this question, but being a devils advocate - what is a worse way to donate this sum of money: $250 for 25 million not-wealthy children or a huge gift to a couple of universities (the common alternative)?

Reposted by Michael Barnett

seema.bsky.social
Seema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 5d
GivePoorly
Michael and Susan Dell to Put $250 in 25 Million Children’s Accounts
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Will Jennings, A. E. Dessler , and 12 more

lukesteuber.com
Luke Snowbrr ☃️ @lukesteuber.com · 6d
presented without comment
Offit told me that Kennedy is a "liar" and a "terrible human being." I asked him to explain. "It doesn't matter what I say," Offit said. "He thinks the medical journals are in the pocket of the industry, he thinks that the government is in the pocket of the industry, he thinks I'm in the pocket of industry, and he's wrong." Offit continued: "If he has data showing he's right, then fucking publish it. He can't, because he doesn't have those data." I asked Offit if he saw a way to reverse the public's rising distrust in science. "I don't think there is any way to regain that trust other than have the viruses do the education, and the bacteria do the education, and then people will realize they paid way too high a cost," he said.

Reposted by Michael Barnett

emergencybod.medsky.social
Dr Farbod @emergencybod.medsky.social · 8d
This might be the most incredible road safety video you'll ever see.

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Philip N. Cohen, Devon Greyson , and 1 more

kentuckylantern.com
Kentucky Lantern @kentuckylantern.com · 12d
Third unvaccinated Kentucky baby dies of whooping cough.

Pertussis, best prevented with a vaccine, has killed three Kentucky babies in the last 12 months.

kentuckylantern.com/2025/11/25/t...
Third unvaccinated Kentucky baby dies of whooping cough • Kentucky Lantern
A third unvaccinated infant in Kentucky has died of pertussis as public health officials urge Kentuckians to get vaccinated against the disease.
kentuckylantern.com

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Miles Corak, Karen Benjamin Guzzo , and 3 more

bhighsmith.bsky.social
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 13d
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Brian A. Nosek, David McKenzie , and 8 more

evavivalt.bsky.social
Eva Vivalt @evavivalt.bsky.social · 13d
🚨 New working paper!

How well do people predict the results of studies?

@sdellavi.bsky.social and I leverage data from the first 100 studies to have been posted on the SSPP, containing 1,482 key questions, on which over 50,000 forecasts were placed. Some surprising results below.... 🧵👇

Reposted by Marc Lynch, Lisa W. Fazio, Michael Barnett , and 25 more

ddiamond.bsky.social
Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 17d
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
Autism and Vaccines QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS PAGE 2 OF 9 | ALL PAGES J For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS • The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. • Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. HHS Research on Plausible Biologic Mechanisms between Vaccines and Autism HHS will evaluate plausible biologic mechanisms between early childhood vaccinations and autism. Mechanisms for further investigation include the impacts of aluminum adjuvants, risks for certain children with mitochondrial disorders, harms of neuroinflammation, and more. * The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.

Reposted by Michael Barnett, David L. Anderson

citizencohn.bsky.social
Citizen Cohn / Jonathan Cohn @citizencohn.bsky.social · 18d
Trying to assess GOP health plans right now is like “trying to read tea leaves, only the cup is full of mud”

— @adrianna.bsky.social

www.thebulwark.com/p/not-so-imp...
The Not-So-Impressive “New” Health Care Ideas Republicans Want to Rush Out
What GOP leaders are missing in their mad scramble to remake health care policy.
www.thebulwark.com

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Daniel W. Drezner, Alan Richardson , and 1 more

brunodias.bsky.social
Bruno Dias @brunodias.bsky.social · 20d
It needs to be emphasized that this paragraph is about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Like all men but more so, he was a hunter. In a literal sense, he used not a bullet but a bird. It was not about a chase but about a puzzle of logic and skill that amounted to a test of his self-mastery. He was the mouse and the architect of his maze. The giver of his own pleasure and torment. He desired. He desired desiring. He desired being desired. He desired desire itself. I understood this just as I came to understand the range of his kinks and complexes and how they fit within what I thought I understood of his soul.

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 22d
since I get this, hello fellow nerd 😂

Reposted by Michael Barnett

abettel.bsky.social
Adriel Bettelheim @abettel.bsky.social · 22d
Federal court gives go-ahead for settlement in Purdue Pharma opioid case. www.axios.com/2025/11/14/o...
Federal judge approves $7.4 billion bankruptcy settlement in OxyContin case
"Today cements the end of a long chapter," said Purdue board chairman Steve Miller.
www.axios.com

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 24d
?????!?!
heartlandsignal.bsky.social Heartland Signal @heartlandsignal.bsky.social · 24d
JD Vance calls ibuprofen "useless medication" and implies it's not "necessary, safe and effective."

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Scott L. Greer , and 8 more

heartlandsignal.bsky.social
Heartland Signal @heartlandsignal.bsky.social · 24d
JD Vance calls ibuprofen "useless medication" and implies it's not "necessary, safe and effective."

Reposted by Michael Barnett

aschwartz.bsky.social
Aaron Schwartz @aschwartz.bsky.social · 27d
🚨New Publication🚨 Risk-based provider payment is more common in Medicare Advantage than any other segment of US health care financing. What happens to broad categories of health care utilization, and low-value service use, when provider groups adopt these contracts? jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Health Care Utilization and Low-Value Service Use After Risk-Based Contract Adoption
This cohort study examined whether health care organizations’ transition to risk-based payment contracts in Medicare Advantage was associated with changes in health care utilization or use of low-valu...
jamanetwork.com

Reposted by Michael Barnett

gelliottmorris.com
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 28d
Ipsos finds Trump’s approval rating is decreasing almost entirely because of anti-incumbent economic anxiety. Approval rating among people who say the economy is the # 1 issue is -24pts since Jan. It’s stable for people who index on all other issues www.ipsos.com/en-us/lesson...

Reposted by Michael Barnett, John Mullahy

erictopol.bsky.social
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 28d
Get this: Coffee suppressed atrial fibrillation!
Unexpected results for recurrence from a randomized trial in participants after cardioversion from AF
#AHA25 @jama.com
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 29d
Why is Trump proposing a weird subsidy program that actually sounds like the ACA?? The truth is that Obamacare is fundamentally very conservative (Mitt Romney's plan!) and any attempt at meaningful reform can only go left ... Who will we buy health insurance from again?
followtheh.bsky.social Tom Hearden @followtheh.bsky.social · 29d
Hey kids the Trump Healthcare
Plan just dropped!

Reposted by Michael Barnett, David R. Miller, Ann Bartow , and 4 more

followtheh.bsky.social
Tom Hearden @followtheh.bsky.social · 29d
Hey kids the Trump Healthcare
Plan just dropped!

Reposted by Jason Mittell, Michael Barnett, Michael S. Rosenberg , and 30 more

brittanytrang.com
Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · 29d
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com

Reposted by Michael Barnett

nytdiff.bsky.social
Editing the Blue-Gray Lady @nytdiff.bsky.social · 29d
Change in Headline
Before: Cornell Reaches Deal with Trump Administration to Restore Research Funds After: Cornell Reaches Deal With Trump Administration to Restore Research Funds

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · Nov 6
Yeah cOst or ReductiOns would have been better

Reposted by Michael Barnett

adrianna.bsky.social
Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · Nov 6
also stuck on "fOr"

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · Nov 4
wild set of results from @atheendar.bsky.social
nber.org NBER @nber.org · Nov 4
The 1975 Voting Rights Act extension lowered mortality for most nonwhite groups but raised it for white adults and older nonwhite men, patterns consistent with status threat, from Atheendar Venkataramani, Rourke O'Brien, Elizabeth F. Bair, and Christopher A. Lowenstein www.nber.org/papers/w34421

Reposted by Michael Barnett

nber.org
NBER @nber.org · Nov 4
The 1975 Voting Rights Act extension lowered mortality for most nonwhite groups but raised it for white adults and older nonwhite men, patterns consistent with status threat, from Atheendar Venkataramani, Rourke O'Brien, Elizabeth F. Bair, and Christopher A. Lowenstein www.nber.org/papers/w34421

Reposted by Michael Barnett, John Mullahy

mlbarnett.bsky.social
Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · Oct 30
totally heartbreaking. addiction policy shouldn't be partisan and SAMHSA is such a drop in the bucket, less than 1/3rd of the support given to Argentina this month.
rosebroderick.bsky.social O. Rose Broderick @rosebroderick.bsky.social · Oct 30
Goodbye, SAMHSA?

After the Trump administration's latest layoffs at the federal agency for mental health and addiction treatment, the agency is in shambles.

On the sacking of SAMHSA and what it means for the country's behavioral health, w/ @levfacher.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/s...
Trump cuts have decimated the federal addiction and mental health agency
The Trump administration has dismantled big chunks of the federal agency focused on mental health and addiction treatment, reducing its staff by more than half
www.statnews.com