15 Feb Innovation Digest – February 2022 Vol. 2

The ongoing theme of this digest is change – where are there opportunities and action that improve health for all in the U.S.? Examples in this edition emphasize high priorities, including data privacy and use, investment in mental health and well being, and the consequences of policy that doesn’t consider the impact on people. Like one of the authors, I think that first, we have to define the success we want to see — what does a “well” population mean? How can we measure that? How can such measures be embedded in every aspect of our health system, from creation of new treatments and interventions to delivery and payment? And what accountability do those with the data and the business power have to the people they serve?

In this issue:

• Why Aren’t Value-Based Payment Models More Successful? A Failure To Confront Market Dynamics
• How a decades-old database became a hugely profitable dossier on the health of 270 million Americans
• California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms
• As data sharing ramps up, health insurers wade into patient privacy debate
• Health Sites Let Ads Track Visitors Without Telling Them
• Mental Health Therapists Seek Exemption From Part of Law to Ban Surprise Billing
• Pandemic’s impact on youth mental health ‘devastating’: Surgeon General
• The U.S. needs to measure health in all of its dimensions: physical, social, and mental
• ‘Somebody Is Gonna Die’: Medi-Cal Patients Struggle to Fill Prescriptions