Public Health
Explore how public health strategies address aging-related challenges and create healthier communities for all generations.
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Inside the West Health City Checkup
Not one of the 789 cities graded by the West Health City Checkup earned an A. Rockville, Maryland, ranked first in the country, earns the single highest grade anyone achieved: a B+. Its Safety & Security domain, on its own, sits at only the 72nd percentile.1 Strong, not flawless, and that's true of the best report card in America.That's not a flaw in the measurement. It's the finding, and that’s w...
VaxMap 2.0: West Health Policy Center and University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy Develop County-Level Map of Potential COVID-19 Vaccine Locations
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIntroductionPreparedness and planning are of upmost importance to ensure a timely and equitable administration of COVID-19 vaccines among the U.S. population. Geographic information systems analysis can be used to inform the design of vaccine distribution and administration plans. These analyses can identify limitations in the existing health care facility infrastructure to ensure...
Industrial Evolution
Over the last decade, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have become highly consolidated and vertically integrated, playing a central role in negotiating drug rebates on behalf of health plans. In recent years, however, PBMs have increasingly shifted this function to newly created entities known as rebate aggregators. Launched by the three largest PBMs, these aggregators now negotiate billions of do...
Addressing the Diabetes Epidemic in America
Civica Rx, the nation’s first not-for-profit generic pharmaceutical company co-founded by the Gary and Mary West Foundation in 2018, announced plans to manufacture and distribute insulins at significantly lower prices than those currently on the market. The availability of affordable insulins will benefit people with diabetes, particularly the uninsured or underinsured, who often pay the most out ...
Benchmarking Healthcare Affordability and Perceived Value
Americans are finding it increasingly harder to pay for healthcare. Over the past year, the percentage of Americans who report skipping needed care due to cost has increased to 30%. Meanwhile, nearly the same percentage of Americans, 29%, report that they could not access affordable care if they needed it today. But a lack of affordability is not the only issue affecting Americans’ experiences wit...
A Roadmap for Effective State Leadership in Value-Based Payment Reform
The roadmap emphasizes the importance of states in setting priorities, advancing data sharing, and developing implementation strategies that align with state goals and reduce the burden on healthcare providers. It highlights successful initiatives from various states, such as North Carolina’s comprehensive approach to integrating public and private measures to shift healthcare payments to value-ba...
The Gold Standard in Geriatric Emergency Department Care
In response to the growing number of older adults utilizing emergency department (ED) services, UC San Diego Health established the first Geriatric Emergency Department (GED) in California. This initiative, supported by a partnership with West Health, led to the creation of the Gary and Mary West Senior Emergency Care Unit (SECU), a dedicated space within the ED for geriatric care. The SECU has se...
Join the Movement: Every State Should Have a Multisector Plan for Aging
ASA is partnering with West Health, The SCAN Foundation and The John A. Hartford Foundation on a series of posts, virtual and On Aging programming to foster Multisector Plans for Aging across the country. This is the first in the blog post series.To age is to live. But living well into our later years of life is not a guarantee. To do that, you need a plan.By 2040, more than one in five people in ...
New York Just Committed to a Master Plan for Aging
*Note that Multisector Plan for Aging is the term used across the nation; California’s plan is called the Master Plan for Aging.In 2022, New York became the latest state to launch a Master Plan for Aging (MPA)—a multisector, comprehensive roadmap to create the conditions for all people to thrive as they age. When Gov. Kathy Hochul committed to an executive order for the Master Plan for Aging in he...
Supporting Local Multisector Plans for Aging in Rural Communities
When people think of California, they often imagine it is primarily suburban and urban, picturing Los Angeles and San Francisco. However, more than one in eight Californians ages 65 and older lives in a rural or frontier (fewer than 6 people per square mile) Census code. That’s 804,000 adults—more than the entire populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska or North Dakota.Rural communities across the ...