February 29, 2012 - A collection of papers in Health Affairs, and a companion Commonwealth Fund webinar, provided key insights for states working to design health insurance exchanges. This post captures highlights from the presentations and Q&A.
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February 21, 2012 - The Commonwealth Fund's Anne-Marie Audet, M.D., and Shreya Patel, M.P.H., call for changes in health care delivery to respond to the growing prevalence of chronic illness in the U.S.
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February 08, 2012 - Many small employers—which make up the vast majority of American businesses—struggle to afford and manage health insurance for their employees. Timothy Jost discusses how the SHOP exchanges will make it easier for small employers to offer affordable plans.
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January 31, 2012 - Vulnerable populations have more difficulty obtaining health care, receive worse care, and experience poorer health outcomes than other groups. This blog post looks at the new Vulnerable Populations program, which aims to help achieve equity in the U.S. health system.
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January 18, 2012 - Health care spending in 2009 and 2010 grew at the slowest rates in 50 years. This startling news was largely attributed to the shrinking economy. In a new blog post, Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis suggests that lower longer-term projections point to a shift in the health system.
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January 16, 2012 - This post describes the Affordable Care Act provisions that will help safety-net providers promote coordination and integration of care, capitalize on investments in the capacity of the safety net, and understand and adapt to upcoming changes to safety net financing and payment.
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January 16, 2012 - To examine how safety-net health systems might participate in ACOs and other innovative payment and delivery system reforms, the National Academy for State Health Policy interviewed several key stakeholders about what is needed to promote ACOs in the safety net.
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January 07, 2012 - The Commonwealth Fund's Mark Zezza, Stuart Guterman, and Jennie Smith review the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Initiative,a three-year project beginning in 2012, that will allow physicians, hospitals, and post–acute care providers to receive bundled payments as a way of supporting the delivery of efficient and high-value care.
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December 20, 2011 - In a new blog post on the HHS's proposed approach to minimum coverage standards, Sara Collins says it will be critical that HHS balance the desire of states and health insurers to determine what benefits are included with the law’s intended goal of providing consumers and employers with comprehensive health insurance coverage options.
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December 14, 2011 - Innovative uses of information technology in public health campaigns can expand access to preventive and chronic care for underserved populations and may even improve health outcomes while reducing costs. Programs in New Zealand and the Netherlands may offer lessons for the United States.
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December 12, 2011 - At the December 2 Alliance for Health Reform briefing, "Inside Deficit Reduction: What Now?," a panel of experts with diverse perspectives discussed the potential impact on health policy of the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reach agreement on a plan to reduce the federal deficit.
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December 08, 2011 - Last week HHS issued final regulations governing the Affordable Care Act’s medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements on the percentage of enrollees' premiums that health plans spend on medical care versus administration and profits. This post addreses where the rule came down on the MLR calculation, rebates, exceptions, and more.
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December 07, 2011 - The Commonwealth Fund's benchmarking and quality improvement tool, WhyNotTheBest.org, has just launched a new version of its interactive map that displays comparative performance information—on health care quality and safety, outcomes, and patient experiences—at the national, state, hospital referral region, and county levels.
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December 05, 2011 - The Commonwealth Fund's Robin Osborn reports on international symposium, which brought together health ministers and leading policy thinkers from across the industrialized world to explore ways of achieving a sustainable high-performing health care system.
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November 29, 2011 - The Commonwealth Fund's Mark Zezza, Melinda Abrams, and Stuart Guterman review the Innovation Center's first year and highlight areas for future development and consideration.
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