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.
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What's New
In their proposals to address the federal budget deficit, the President and the House of Representatives have advanced fundamentally different paths for the nation. Rising health care costs are at the heart of this debate.
In a new blog post, Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis analyzes the proposals, showing that while both approaches constrain federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid, they differ sharply in how steep the cuts would be, how they would be achieved, and what effect they would have. Davis outlines the health care provisions in each proposal and considers their impact on the availability of affordable, comprehensive coverage and the drivers of health care costs.
Read more »
Recent Releases
Ninety percent of American families living above the federal poverty level will be able to afford health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, according to MIT health care economist Jonathan Gruber, lead author of a new Commonwealth Fund report. Read more »
A program designed to help nursing homes identify and manage acute conditions and status changes among residents achieved a 17 percent reduction in hospital admissions when tested among 25 facilities over a recent six-month period, according to a Commonwealth Fund–supported evaluation published in the new issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Read more »
In recent studies, Commonwealth Fund–supported researchers explored:
- community-based health information technology alliances (American Journal of Managed Care, April 2011);
- a trial of the Transitional Care Model, which uses an advanced practice nurse to coordinate care (Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, March 16, 2011); and
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individual insurance plans in 10 states, to provide a snapshot of the pre-reform market in terms of premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket limits, cost-sharing, and covered services (Medical Care Research and Review, March 21, 2011).
Read more »
A series of studies led by former Harkness Fellows in Health Care Policy and Practice focus on international health system issues and offers lessons for the U.S. The articles address:
- the effectiveness of U.S. and German chronic care management models (Health Care Financing Review);
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New Zealand's patients' complaints system, a means of quickly resolving complaints and promoting safety and quality improvements (Health Affairs);
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three nations’ experiences with "health courts," in which adjudicators rely on experts to determine compensation, based on a standard other than negligence (Social Science and Medicine);
- the background, history, and approach of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Health Care Quality Indicators Project (International Journal for Quality in Health Care);
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quality indicators for diabetes care, developed as part of the Health Care Quality Indicators Project (International Journal for Quality in Health Care);
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international patient safety indicators, developed under the Health Care Quality Indicators Project (International Journal for Quality in Health Care);
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measures for primary care, prevention, and health promotion, developed under the Health Care Quality Indicators Project (International Journal for Quality in Health Care);
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use of electronic health records in ambulatory care settings and hospitals in seven countries (International Journal of Medical Informatics);
- the likely effect of the U.K. government's promotion of competition among National Health Service providers (BMJ);
- the outcomes of a heart failure management program in Germany (Health Care Financing Review);
- the effects and unintended consequences of pay-for-performance programs in England and California (Annals of Family Medicine); and
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prescription drug utilization and expenditures in British Columbia (Health Services Research).
Read more »
New on the Web
The latest issue of this newsletter explores strategies to strengthen the primary care workforce to prepare to care for millions of Americans who will gain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Plus, a case study of one safety-net clinic's use of team care to expand access, increase productivity, and improve quality. Read more »
Many national initiatives—including Medicare's Community-Based Care Transition Program, part of the Affordable Care Act—encourage providers to work beyond their walls to coordinate patient care and avoid complications that can lead to hospitalizations or readmissions. Join a Commonwealth Fund webinar on May 6, 1 p.m.–2 p.m., EDT, featuring:
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Eric Coleman, M.D., M.P.H., director, Care Transitions Program, and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Dr. Coleman will discuss how hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, community providers, and others can provide continuous, coordinated care.
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Garry MacKenzie, M.D., medical director of cardiology services at McKay-Dee Hospital Center in Ogden, Utah
McKay-Dee is among the nation's top performers in holding down readmission rates for heart failure, heart attack, and pneumonia patients. Dr. MacKenzie will provide real-world examples of how the hospital has partnered with community providers to keep tabs on patients after discharge and keep them from being readmitted.
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Janice Fitzgerald, R.N., director of quality and medical management at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.
Baystate Medical Center is one of the hospitals participating in State Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations (STAAR), an initiative supported by The Commonwealth Fund and led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to help hospitals improve their processes for transitioning patients to other care settings and thereby reduce readmissions. Ms. Fitzgerald will discuss Baystate's creation of care teams to oversee smooth and safe care transitions.
The webinar will be moderated by Commonwealth Fund vice president Anne-Marie J. Audet, M.D., M.Sc., director of the Program on Quality Improvement and Efficiency.
To register for this free event, go to https://cc.readytalk.com/r/7e6jn35x8ua. Read more »
An April 27 Alliance for Health Reform briefing, cosponsored by The Commonwealth Fund, looked at the state-of-the-art of public reporting on performance in health care and its future under the Affordable Care Act. The speakers were Tom Scully, Alston & Bird; Gerry Shea, AFL-CIO; Nancy Foster, American Hospital Association; and David Share, Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan. A webcast, podcast, videos, and related resources are available here. Read more »
Many frail elders with Medicaid coverage choose to live in an assisted-living facility as an alternative to a nursing home. Yet, low-income older adults who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid face many challenges in obtaining Medicaid coverage for high-quality assisted-living services. With support from The Commonwealth Fund, the National Senior Citizens Law Center undertook a study of federal and state Medicaid policies for assisted-living coverage. Policy briefs and white papers from this study are published as a resource for advocates, policymakers, state Medicaid officials, assisted-living facility operators, and others on http://medicaidalseries.org/. Read more »
Fellowships
The Australian–American Health Policy 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. The deadline for receipt of applications for the 2012–13 fellowship is August 15, 2011. For further information on the Australian–American Health Policy Fellowship and to obtain an application, please see http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Fellowships.aspx Read more »
Rose Hoban, a reporter for WUNC, North Carolina's public radio station, and a former nurse, used her Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) Media Fellowship on Health Performance, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, to create a five-part radio series on what state and local governments are doing to accommodate and treat residents with mental health disorders. Another AHCJ Fellow, Marshall Allen, a reporter for ProPublica, won the Harvard Kennedy School's 2011 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for his series "Do No Harm: Hospital Care in Las Vegas". The series was co-written with Alex Richards and published in the Las Vegas Sun. Read more »
The Australian–American Health Policy 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. The deadline for receipt of applications for the 2012–13 fellowship is August 15, 2011.
For further information on the Australian–American Health Policy Fellowship and to obtain an application, please see http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Fellowships.aspx Read more »
News
Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis was once again included in Modern Healthcare's list of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare. The magazine described The Commonwealth Fund as "a powerful force in healthcare policy circles" and Davis as "a strong proponent for change." Read more »