The Department of Health and Human Services recently issued proposed regulations that clarify how the Affordable Care Act applies to student health plans offered at colleges and universities. By classifying student health plans as individual market plans, the new regulations ensure that students will enjoy most of the consumer protections provided by the health reform law, but provide some flexibility to health plans so that they continue to offer coverage to students. In a new blog post, Commonwealth Fund vice president Sara Collins, Ph.D., explains how millions of current and future students stand to gain from these new protections. We invite you to join the online conversation by commenting on this blog post. Read more »
A white paper by Meredith Rosenthal, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, identifies common elements among recent efforts to reform payments for health care providers, including greater transparency of information available to providers and patients as well as timely data-sharing. The analysis is based on presentations delivered at an October 2010 conference on payment reform sponsored by the Massachusetts Medical Society and The Commonwealth Fund. Read more »
The Commonwealth Fund's 2011 State Scorecard on Child Health System Performance revealed wide variation among states in health insurance coverage, the affordability of care, receipt of preventive care and treatment, and the opportunity for children to lead healthy lives. In a new video, Scorecard authors Cathy Schoen and Ed Schor discuss how lower-performing states can learn from the best states and meet achievable benchmarks. Read more »
View an e-forum from this Dec. 13 Alliance for Health Reform/Commonwealth Fund briefing, where speakers discussed the primary care provisions in the Affordable Care Act and how innovation in primary care can improve health system performance and control costs. Speakers included Melinda Abrams of The Commonwealth Fund, Kevin Grumbach, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and Paul Grundy, M.D., director of health care transformation at IBM. Read more »
This episode focuses on a new report evaluating how well the nation cares for its kids. Producer Sandy Hausman explores why children's coverage has improved in 35 states despite the recession, what states can learn from each other, and how health reform can help. Subscribe to New Directions in Health Care: The Commonwealth Fund Podcast via RSS or iTunes. Read more »
Follow @whynothebest on Twitter for updates from the Commonwealth Fund's quality improvement site, WhyNotTheBest.org, which tracks U.S. hospital performance on measures of recommended care, patient experiences, bloodstream infections and other patient safety issues, readmissions, and more. Also find case studies of top performers. Read more »
The Safety Net Medical Home Initiative, supported by the Commonwealth Fund and eight partners, aims to help 65 community health centers become patient-centered medical homes. New implementation guides are available for the following key building blocks of a medical home: empanelment; team-based care; patient-centered interactions; engaged leadership; and enhanced access. Read more »