In this episode of A Moment in Health, Dr. Ashish Jha highlights a 24% decline in telehealth visits for Medicare beneficiaries following the October 1 government shutdown, driven by the sudden expiration of Medicare’s authority to pay for telehealth. He reviews a new JAMA randomized controlled trial on caffeinated coffee and atrial fibrillation. Dr. Stephanie Psaki, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Brown School of Public Health, joins to explain why declining fertility rates around the world matter and why supporting people’s family planning choices should be a core public health and policy priority.

Dr. Jha discusses:

• Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities at Risk with Government Shutdown — Center for Advancing Health Policy Through Research
• Caffeinated Coffee Consumption or Abstinence to Reduce Atrial Fibrillation — JAMA
• The Real Way to Boost Birth Rates — TIME

Dr. Stephanie Psaki is a distinguished senior fellow at the Brown University School of Public Health and served as Special Assistant to the President and U.S. Coordinator for Global Health Security at the National Security Council.

Dr. Ashish K. Jha is the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

Music by Katherine Beggs, additional music by Lulu West and Maya Polsky