A Disproportionate Share: Meditations on Safety Net Hospitals & How We Pay For Them

Health Affairs This Week

Health Affairs This Week is off for the next three weeks. We will return for a special episode in December before returning to our regular schedule in January 2025.

For the next three weeks, we present the three-part A Disproportionate Share, a podcast from NYC Health + Hospitals's Michael Shen, a primary care doctor and Chief Creative Officer for the medical education podcast Core IM, as part of the Health Affairs Pathways show that we published in 2023. We encourage listeners to check out the other series from that podcast.

Unique series were created by fellows at the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program, designed to support early to mid-stage professionals pursue an audio project and tell a unique health care story.

A Disproportionate Share explores safety net hospitals and how we pay for them.

In this first episode, Shen looks at the closure of Hahnemann University Hospital, a large urban hospital affiliated with a major academic medical center, to ask how safety net hospitals sustain themselves on thin financial margins. He shares what safety net hospitals are and their role in caring for America's vulnerable populations.

Related Links:

• Michael Shen
• Graduate Medical Education Should Not Be A Commodity (Health Affairs)
• Podcast: Graduate Medical Education Should Not Be A Commodity (Health Affairs Narrative Matters)
• The Death of Hahnemann Hospital (The New Yorker)
• To Protect America's Safety-Net Hospitals, Establish a New Federal Designation (Health Affairs Forefront)

Listen to the full series here.