JAMA network open
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Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are an emerging workplace-based, patient-oriented assessment approach with limited empirical evidence. ⋯ This study presents initial evidence for empirically derived practice readiness and sets the stage for identifying curricular gaps that contribute to discrepancy between observed practice readiness and standards needed to produce physicians able to meet the health needs of the patient populations they serve. Future work should compare these findings with postgraduation outcomes data as a means of seeking validity evidence.
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) permits states to expand Medicaid coverage for most low-income adults to 138% of the federal poverty level and requires the provision of mental health and substance use disorder services on parity with other medical and surgical services. Uptake of substance use disorder services with medications for opioid use disorder has increased more in Medicaid expansion states than in nonexpansion states, but whether ACA-related Medicaid expansion is associated with county-level opioid overdose mortality has not been examined. ⋯ Medicaid expansion was associated with reductions in total opioid overdose deaths, particularly deaths involving heroin and synthetic opioids other than methadone, but increases in methadone-related mortality. As states invest more resources in addressing the opioid overdose epidemic, attention should be paid to the role that Medicaid expansion may play in reducing opioid overdose mortality, in part through greater access to medications for opioid use disorder.
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Much of the wide variation in health care has been associated with practice variation among physicians. Physicians choosing to see patients with more (or fewer) care needs could also produce variations in care observed across physicians. ⋯ This study found preference variation across physicians and within physicians during the course of a shift. These findings suggest that current efforts to reduce practice variation may not affect the variation associated with physician preferences, which reflect underlying differences in patient needs and not physician practice.
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Millions of Americans use electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). A growing number of state and local governments have started to draft and implement laws regarding the sale, marketing, and use of e-cigarettes. The association of US state regulations regarding e-cigarettes with e-cigarette use remains unknown. ⋯ These findings suggest that several state regulations regarding e-cigarettes may be associated with reduced e-cigarette use among US adults.
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Racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care may result from discrimination. ⋯ In this study, black and Hispanic patients were more likely to be offered an appointment, but they were asked more frequently about their insurance status than white callers. Black and Hispanic callers experienced longer wait times than white patients, indicating a barrier to timely access to primary care.