January 20, 2012 - This Commonwealth Fund–supported study explores the equity concerns associated with wellness incentives, an increasingly popular way for employers to encourage participation in prevention programs, which can both improve workers' overall health and reduce costs.
In Brief
January 13, 2012 - Monarch HealthCare, a physician-led independent practice association in Orange County, Calif., is one of the provider groups participating in the Brookings–Dartmouth ACO Pilot Program to form accountable care organizations, which assume responsibility for improving patient care and lowering total costs and, in turn, share in the savings achieved.
Case Study
January 13, 2012 - This case study explores the characteristics of Norton and its partners, including the insurer Humana, that have contributed to the development of the ACO, including: a strong payer–provider relationship bolstered by a joint ACO implementation committee, a focus on performance measurement and reporting, an expanding heath information technology infrastructure, and an integrated system that facilitates communication and collaboration across the continuum of care.
Case Study
January 13, 2012 - This case study explores: the characteristics of HealthCare Partners and its partner organizations, including the insurer Anthem, that are contributing to the development of the ACO; the rationale behind the decision to develop an ACO; the steps taken to implement the model; milestones achieved; and lessons learned.
Case Study
January 13, 2012 - This case study explores the characteristics of Tucson Medical Center and its partners, including affiliated physician groups and the insurer United Healthcare, that have contributed to the development of their ACO, including: the medical center’s strong local governance, its institutional commitment to the ACO initiative, and its historical role as a community-based hospital.
Case Study
January 13, 2012 - This report synthesizes findings and lessons from case studies of four diverse health care organizations participating in the Brookings–Dartmouth ACO Pilot Program, launched in 2009 to support selected provider groups that are collaborating with private payers to form accountable care organizations (ACOs).
Case Study
January 9, 2012 - This Commonwealth Fund-supported study shows that the patient-centered medical home model may help improve provider and staff morale and job satisfaction.
In Brief
January 5, 2012 - Based on the early experiences of recently formed ACOs, the authors of this Commonwealth Fund–supported study identify five key challenges—and some possible approaches for overcoming them.
In Brief
December 19, 2011 - This Commonwealth Fund–supported study examined data from 26 nursing homes involved in the Interventions to Reduce Care Transfers program, which provides nursing homes with training, tools, and resources for reducing unnecessary hospitalization.
In Brief
December 19, 2011 - This Commonwealth Fund–supported study sought to test the hypothesis by investigating whether hospital quality is inversely associated with the proportion of minority patients served.
In Brief
December 19, 2011 - The authors of this Commonwealth Fund–supported study identify the steps necessary to undertake a positive deviance study and then describe how this work led them to discover hospital strategies associated with lower mortality following acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack.
In Brief
December 19, 2011 - This commentary, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, explores the problems CMS may encounter in trying to exclude certain criteria from the readmissions measure.
In Brief
December 15, 2011 - Regions of the United States where discharged hospital patients are readmitted at comparatively high rates are often the same regions where overall hospitalization rates are high, new Commonwealth Fund–supported research finds.
In the Literature
December 15, 2011 - This study, coauthored by Commonwealth Fund senior policy analyst Mark Zezza, compared variations in spending and inpatient admissions by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest health insurer, and Medicare across 32 Texas regions.
In Brief
December 2, 2011 - This Commonwealth Fund report profiles eight states that are at different stages in the development and implementation of a medical home program and have relied on different strategies to encourage primary care providers to adopt the model, including developing state medical home qualification standards instead of adopting national standards.
Fund Report