The Commonwealth Fund Connection serves as a roundup of Fund publications, charts, and multimedia added to the Commonwealth Fund Web site in the last two weeks, and also offers links to other timely content.
Please visit your
My Commonwealth Fund profile to manage your subscriptions. If you receive Commonwealth Fund alerts but you have not yet created a profile, you can do so by registering with your e-mail address.
What's New
In a recent blog post, Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis discussed the ways the new health reform law improves the affordability of insurance for a variety of populations, including the uninsured and the underinsured and older and younger adults. In a new post, Davis explores the lesser-known provisions of the Affordable Care Act that emphasize preventive and primary care and reward health care quality. These key features will ultimately push the health care system to deliver more patient-centered, accessible, and coordinated care—improving our experiences in the doctor's office and hospital.
Under the new reforms, patients will be more likely to have:
- A physician practice that is accessible 24/7 and helps arrange specialist appointments.
- Better access to community health centers able to serve more patients.
- Electronic medical records that provide physicians, with patients' prior authorization, access to their complete medical information when needed.
- Doctors and hospitals that are rewarded for higher quality and better patient outcomes.
- Better information and support when discharged from the hospital.
- Hospitals with an incentive to reduce hospital-acquired infections.
- Information on the quality of their physicians, hospitals, and health plans.
- More choice of health insurance plans, including nonprofit plans.
- Access to private plans that are rewarded for better care.
- Reduced health insurance premiums.
Read more »
Recent Releases
Compared with other hospitals, public hospitals are generally assumed to face multiple barriers to providing high-quality care: lower revenues; sicker patients who may have infrequent contact with the health care system; and an older infrastructure, particularly related to health information technology. A new case study series set out to find how some public hospitals have succeeded in achieving excellence in quality of care, in spite of such challenges. Researchers used data from The Commonwealth Fund's performance benchmarking Web site, WhyNotTheBest.org, to evaluate public hospitals' performance. The cases studies are:
Read more »
Comparative effectiveness research has assumed an increasing role in drug coverage and, in some cases, pricing decisions in Europe, as decision-makers seek to obtain better value for money. This issue brief examines the use of such research in six countries—Denmark, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. With comparative effectiveness research gaining traction in the United States, these international experiences offer insights and potential lessons. Read more »
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tracks and reports annually on more than 1,200 health system measures across 30 industrialized countries. Based on analysis of OECD health data from 2008, the United States continues to differ markedly from other countries on a number of measures. It has a comparatively low number of hospital beds and physicians per capita, and U.S. patients have fewer hospital and physician visits than those in most other countries. At the same time, spending per hospital visit is highest in the U.S., and American patients are among the most likely to receive procedures requiring complex technology. The nation now ranks in the bottom quartile in life expectancy among OECD countries and has seen the smallest improvement in this metric over the past 20 years.
Read more »
The Colorado Children's Healthcare Access Program (CCHAP) is a nonprofit organization created to address barriers that have prevented private pediatric and family practices from accepting children enrolled in Medicaid and providing them with a medical home. CCHAP helps pediatric practices meet the state's medical home certification and receive enhanced reimbursement from Medicaid, while providing them with an array of support services, including care coordination, a resource hotline, and billing assistance. According to this case study, children covered by Medicaid and with a medical home in a private pediatric practice supported by CCHAP visit the emergency department less often, have more preventive care visits, and are less expensive for the state Medicaid program than children in non-CCHAP-affiliated practices. Read more »
A new Fund-supported report, National Progress Report on eHealth, tracks progress over the last three years in promoting the adoption and use of health information technology. Published by the eHealth Initiative, the report is based on input from 100 experts around the country as well as a survey of providers. Key findings include:
- Significant advances have been made as a result of public and private sector initiatives. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated $30 billion to promote health IT, has been a key driver of progress.
- Many providers are concerned about the lack of coordination across government health and health information technology initiatives.
- More education and outreach to consumers about health IT and health information exchange is needed.
- Knowledge and transparency of privacy and security policies will be key to building consumer trust.
Read more »
New On The Web
In the latest Commonwealth Fund Annual Report, Fund president Karen Davis discusses how The Commonwealth Fund marshaled its resources to produce timely and rigorous work that helped lay the groundwork for the historic Affordable Care Act, and executive vice president and COO John E. Craig, Jr., explores the effects of the financial crisis on foundation endowments and offers lessons that could help boards and investment committees responsible for foundation endowments avoid mistakes going forward. Also learn about activities of the Commission on a High Performance Health System and recent projects supported by the Fund's programs. Read more »
This Clinical Guide—designed to accompany the Bright Futures Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents—provides authoritative, evidence-based guidance about the most effective and efficient ways to deliver child preventive services. Read more »
Fellowships
Applications close July 9 for the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) Media Fellowships on Health Performance, a 10-month program enabling mid-career journalists to pursue a significant reporting project examining health care systems. With Commonwealth Fund support, reporters attend seminars on health system performance and consult with AHCJ fellowship leaders and experts. Fellows may also receive financial support for field reporting, health data, or other research needs. To learn more about the fellowships or to apply, visit the AHCJ Web site. Read more »
The Commonwealth Fund's 2011–12 Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice are open to applicants from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The deadline for receipt of applications is September 13, 2010.
The Harkness Fellowships provide a unique opportunity for mid-career professionals—academic researchers, government policymakers, clinicians, managers, and journalists—to spend up to 12 months in the United States conducting a policy-oriented research study, working with leading U.S. health policy experts and gaining in-depth knowledge of not only the U.S. health care system, but also the health care systems in the fellows' home countries. For details and the application form, please visit http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Fellowships/Harkness-Fellowships.aspx. Read more »
On behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, The Commonwealth Fund is pleased to announce the 2011–12 Australian-American Health Policy Fellowship. The deadline for receipt of applications is August 15, 2010.
The fellowship offers a unique opportunity for outstanding, mid-career U.S. professionals—academics, government officials, clinical leaders, decision-makers in managed care and other private health care organizations, and journalists—to spend up to 10 months in Australia conducting research and working with leading Australian health policy experts on issues relevant to both countries. For further information and to obtain an application, please see http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Fellowships/Australian-American-Health-Policy-Fellowships.aspx. Read more »
In the News
Maureen Bisognano, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's chief operating officer, will succeed Donald Berwick, M.D., as the organization's president and CEO. Bisognano is a member of the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System. This week, President Obama appointed Berwick as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Check out the 2002 monograph in which Berwick—one of the first voices to call for improvement in the health system—sketches an ambitious program for reforming U.S. health care. Read more »