September 10, 2010 - This brief looks at states' efforts to create all-payer claims databases, in order to gather comprehensive information on disease incidence, treatment costs, and health outcomes. These databases are providing essential trend data that will be needed to guide policymakers through the transitions health care reform will bring.
Issue Brief
July 17, 2009 - National health reform efforts are seeking to expand insurance coverage, improve quality of care, and "bend the health care cost curve." This publication highlights data from a Commonwealth Fund report that analyzed alternative approaches to defining the role of a public plan and presented estimates of the potential impacts on health spending compared with projected trends.
Policy Points
July 12, 2012 - A Commonwealth Fund-supported study of a global reimbursement pilot project in Massachusetts found the payment models achieved average two-year savings of 2.8 percent. These results indicate such programs may be effective at controlling health care spending and improving quality.
In the Literature
August 5, 2005 - This issue brief, prepared for the 2005 Commonwealth Fund/Kennedy School of Government Bipartisan Congressional Retreat, provides an overview of the challenges facing policymakers making funding decisions about Alzheimer's disease.
Issue Brief
June 11, 2003 - The U.S. has the highest health care spending per capita in the world, and during the 1990s health spending in the U.S. rose faster than in other industrialized nations. The key to containing costs—as well as getting higher value for what we spend—may well lie in fundamental changes in the supply side of the market.
Testimony
October 1, 2003 - The root causes of disparities in the quality of care between minority Americans, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans, and whites are not well understood, but a new study finds that patient-physician interactions contribute to the problem.
In the Literature
March 20, 2012 - According to a Commonwealth Fund survey, 30 percent of younger primary care physicians were planning to leave their practices within five years, and among older doctors 27 percent were planning to retire and 25 percent were planning to leave their practices for other reasons within five years.
In Brief
March 19, 2007 - This report, the first of a two-part series, compares leading congressional bills and Administration proposals to expand health insurance coverage introduced over 2005–2007.
Fund Report
July 26, 2007 - The U.S. health care system will become a high performance health system only with strong leadership from the federal government in partnership with the private sector. A prior report analyzed the likely effect on U.S. health system performance of congressional legislative proposals to extend health insurance coverage. This report addresses the major bills introduced over 2005-2007 designed to advance the quality and efficiency of the health system.
Fund Report
January 9, 2009 - This Commonwealth Fund analysis of leading bills of the 110th Congress aimed at expanding and improving health insurance coverage finds several of these proposals could substantially reduce the number of uninsured Americans, and would either reduce health care spending or add only modestly to annual health care expenditures.
Fund Report
April 8, 2013 - A study using data on 11 high-income countries included in the Commonwealth Fund's 2010 International Health Policy Survey sought to determine whether respondents' perceptions of affordability and effectiveness, among other factors, influenced satisfaction scores.
In Brief
June 20, 2011 - In 2006, Massachusetts established a pay-for-performance program to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in hospital care for Medicaid patients. Using data from the first year of the program, the authors of this
article found little evidence of disparities in care. This finding and others raise questions about the utility of addressing disparities in hospital care through pay-for-performance.
In the Literature
April 5, 2010 - In a commentary on the most recent Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders' survey, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt writes that the "next phase" of health reform will need to focus on controlling costs.
Commentary
December 1, 2001 - This study assesses how well managed care plans serve Medicaid beneficiaries, and finds that while these plans often provide good care to young children, their quality scores on most other measures lag behind plans serving the commercially insured.
Fund Report
September 1, 2000 - Few measures of parenting skills offer an appraisal that is brief, comprehensive, parent-sensitive, psychometrically sound, nonintrusive, and appropriate to child development. This annotated bibliography provides clinicians, clinical researchers, and researchers interested in applied issues with information about those parenting skills measures that are available.
Fund Report