April 28, 2008 - Massachusetts' passage of health care reform legislation in April 2006 heralded an exciting new era in state health policy. The reform plan is the most comprehensive effort by a state to achieve near-universal coverage, and arguably the most controversial, given its inclusion of an individual mandate.
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
August 13, 2009 - The Mayo Clinic is the world's oldest and largest integrated multispecialty group medical practice, combining clinical practice, education, and research at the regional, national, and international levels for the benefit of individuals with routine as well as complex health care needs.
Case Study
June 23, 2011 - One of the first physicians in the country to be certified as a "meaningful" user of health information technology says the electronic health record system she implemented has significantly improved her performance on measures of clinical quality by providing immediate feedback on her adherence to evidence-based standards of care.
Case Study
January 9, 2012 - With Commonwealth Fund support, Sarah Lewis, M.S.P.H., of the University of Chicago, and colleagues have developed two surveys and a scoring algorithm to capture the experiences of safety net providers and staff as they adopt medical homes.
Tool
July 7, 2010 - This case study describes the strategies and factors that appear to contribute to high adherence to "core" quality measures at Memorial Healthcare System. It is part of series of case studies on high-performing public hospitals.
Case Study
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
March 17, 2011 - Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had readmission rates in the lowest 3 percent among U.S. hospitals in all three clinical areas—heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia—reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the selection period.
Case Study
August 11, 2004 - This community-based initiative is a subsidized health coverage program that targets the working uninsured in small and medium sized businesses.
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
August 10, 2004 - Michigan is pursuing two approaches to control state spending on prescription drugs--setting up its own Preferred Drug List and participating in a national pooling program designed to leverage Medicaid enrollments to negotiate lower prices.
State Profile
October 4, 2005 - Michigan's Medicaid program has taken an aggressive, multipronged approach to addressing racial and ethnic health disparities.
State Profile
July 13, 2009 - Minnesota's 2008 Health Reform bill has four elements intended to work together: population health, health care market transparency and enhanced information about the quality and cost of care, payment reform, and consumer engagement.
State Profile
January 14, 2010 - In 2003, Minnesota became the first state to require public reporting of never events based on the National Quality Forum list of severe reportable events.
State Profile
October 4, 2005 - Minnesota's hospitals agreed to provide discounted care to uninsured patients and to be less aggressive in their debt collecting.
State Profile