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Majority of State Medicaid Programs Have or Plan to Have "Pay-For-Performance" Programs, According to Landmark Study

April 12, 2007 - In the first published nationwide survey of state Medicaid programs on "pay-for-performance" practices, more than half of all programs state that they provide financial incentives to health care providers for better quality care.

New Analysis: Congressional Health Care Proposals Would Cover All Uninsured, and Reduce Total U.S. Health Spending by Up to $61 Billion

March 19, 2007 - A new analysis of health reform bills in Congress prepared for the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System shows that many current Congressional health care proposals could significantly reduce the number of uninsured Americans and also decrease overall health care expenditures including those for insurance administration and prescription drugs.

New Study Cautions States on Changes to Medicaid

March 6, 2007 - As states across the country contemplate health insurance coverage expansions and other changes to publicly funded programs, a new Commonwealth Fund study cautions states to pay critical attention to meeting the health needs of children.

The 2007 State of the Union Address: The President's Health Insurance Proposal Is Not a Solution

February 1, 2007 - While it is encouraging that President Bush made health care a theme of this year's State of the Union address, his proposal to offer tax deductions to those who buy insurance would do little to cover the nation's nearly 47 million uninsured.

New Congress Should Focus on Covering the Uninsured, Reducing Health Costs, According to New Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey

January 8, 2007 - Expanding coverage for the uninsured should be the top health care priority for the new Congress over the next five years, identified as "absolutely essential" or "very important" by 88 percent of respondents to the latest Commonwealth Fund Health Care Opinion Leaders survey.

Visit Chart Cart and Performance Snapshots

January 4, 2007 - Chart Cart and Performance Snapshots are two online resources that offer access to rich collections of charts and, in the case of Snapshots, accompanying narratives. You can create your own chart collections by selecting charts to save, print, and share in PowerPoint (PPT) or Portable Document File (PDF) format.

Press Briefing: The 2nd Annual EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey, 2006

December 7, 2006 - Press briefing page for second annual EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey, 2006.

Consumer-Driven Health Plans Slow To Catch On, 2nd Annual Survey Finds

December 7, 2006 - Americans have not yet warmed to consumer-driven health plans, a relatively new kind of coverage that offers reduced premiums but carries higher annual deductibles, according to a survey released today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and The Commonwealth Fund.

Extra Payments to Medicare Advantage Plans Totaled $5.2 Billion Over Fee-For-Service Costs in 2005

November 30, 2006 - Private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans were paid an average 12.4% more per enrollee in 2005 compared with what the same enrollees would have cost in the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.

Firms Covering Large Majority of Nation's Workers View Health Benefits as an Important Recruitment and Retention Tool

November 14, 2006 - Despite intense health care cost pressures, firms covering more than 90 percent of the nation's workforce view health benefits as an important tool to attract and retain qualified workers, according to a national study by researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change and The Commonwealth Fund published in the November/December edition of Health Affairs.

Press Briefing for The Commonwealth Fund 2006 International Health Policy Survey

November 2, 2006 - Materials and a webcast from the "2006 International Symposium on Health Care Policy: What Is a High Performance Health Care System and How Do We Get There?" event.

New International Survey of Primary Care Physicians: Most U.S. Doctors Unable to Provide Patients Access to After-Hours Care; Half Lack Access to Drug Safety Alert Systems

November 2, 2006 - Primary care doctors in the U.S. are less likely than those in several other countries to be able to offer patients access to care outside regular office hours or to have systems that alert doctors to potentially harmful drug interactions, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2006 International Health Policy Survey published today on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs.

Public Reporting Critical to Quality Improvement

September 28, 2006 - In a new statement, Fund President Karen Davis observes that the NCQA's 2006 State of Health Care Quality report underscores several important themes described in the Fund's Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, including the need to learn from high performers in the health system.

Press Briefing
Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System: A National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance

September 20, 2006 - Press briefing agenda and materials.

New National Scorecard: U.S. Health Care System Gets Poor Scores on Quality, Access, Efficiency, and Equity

September 20, 2006 - A new report from The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System paints a disturbing picture of a health care system that does not achieve top marks in any single assessed health care category.