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September 13, 2016

Reframing Prevention in the Era of Health Reform

Author Affiliations
  • 1Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 2Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • 3Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, US Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland
  • 4Dr Rajkumar is currently with CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, Baltimore, Maryland
JAMA. 2016;316(10):1039-1040. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.10405

The 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) raised numerous opportunities for disease prevention. Of the 10 legislative titles comprising the ACA legal framework, Title 4 (“Prevention of Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health”) initially held the most promise for delivering new financial resources as well as effective policy for prevention.1 Six years later, Title 4 outcomes show mixed results. In the meantime, however, other ACA innovations are redesigning health systems by incorporating prevention into a range of new care models. Doing so connects the clinic and the community in ways not necessarily envisioned in the statute, thereby broadening possibilities for the future of population health.

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