March 11, 2011 - The Utah Health Exchange is a Web portal through which small businesses can make a defined contribution—a fixed dollar amount per employee—toward health insurance, and their employees can compare and select health plans from a range of options.
State Profile
March 11, 2011 - The Massachusetts Health Connector was created as an independent state agency charged with implementing many elements of the state's 2006 health care reform.
State Profile
February 16, 2011 - Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center (Memorial City) achieved superior readmission rates in two of the three clinical areas reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Case Study
February 16, 2011 - McKay-Dee Hospital Center in Ogden, Utah, part of the Intermountain Healthcare System, had readmission rates in the lowest 3 percent of hospitals across the nation for all three clinical areas reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the selection period.
Case Study
January 20, 2011 - Missouri has pioneered a program for Medicaid beneficiaries with severe mental illness that is based in community mental health centers and provides care coordination and disease management to address the "whole person," including both mental illness and chronic medical conditions. The initiative is a partnership among Missouri's Departments of Mental Health, MO HealthNet, and the Missouri Coalition of Community Mental Health Centers.
State Profile
January 20, 2011 - Minnesota plans to use the ACA's Medicaid health homes option to build on its current statewide medical home initiative, which began in 2003. Jeffrey Schiff, M.D., the medical director of health care programs at Minnesota's Department of Human Services, said that the provision "is very compatible with our program.
State Profile
December 28, 2010 - Rhode Island was the first state to begin moving toward establishing statewide public–private partnerships for quality improvement and is the only state to have established an independent nonprofit organization to house and coordinate such efforts.
Case Study
October 22, 2010 - Some states are using regulatory oversight of nursing facilities to advance the culture change movement and promote resident-centered care. For example, Rhode Island's nursing home survey agency, part of its Department of Health, has prioritized measures of quality of life—in addition to measures of clinical care—in its nursing home survey and certification process.
State Profile
October 22, 2010 - Another approach to improving the quality of care as well as the quality of life for recipients of long-term care involves development of a high-quality and stable workforce. Michigan is focusing on the needs of its direct-care workers (e.g., nursing assistants, home care aides) as part of the foundation for its quality improvement activities.
State Profile
October 22, 2010 - State budget constraints and a cap on the annual nursing facility provider fee have resulted in the cancellation of P4P payments for applications submitted in the year ended June 30, 2010, but the model Colorado developed may serve as a blueprint that could be replicated in other states and could be reinstated in Colorado, as budgets permit.
State Profile
October 19, 2010 - Montefiore Medical Center, an academic medical center in New York City, has created an integrated system of care for its primarily low-income patients. This patient-centered system of hospitals, community clinics, and school-based clinics uses innovative practices for managing chronic disease, provides access to high-quality specialty hospital care, and employs targeted care management and robust health information technology in support of integrated care.
Case Study
August 19, 2010 - INTERACT II is a series of educational and clinical tools that is designed to reduce the number of avoidable transfers from nursing homes to hospitals.
Tool
August 11, 2010 - Virginia is among the 21 states with a lawsuit challenging the federal health care legislation, but it is also preparing to implement reform, acknowledging that the legal challenge may take years to resolve and the federal law may prevail.
State Profile
August 11, 2010 - Pennsylvania is building on its existing Office of Health Care Reform, established by Governor Edward G. Rendell in 2003, to implement national reform.
State Profile
August 11, 2010 - Colorado is one of many states that will have a new governor and administration in January 2011. The current administration considered how to prioritize the tasks related to national reform, and how to leave behind a good transition plan and roadmap for the incoming team.
State Profile