November 6, 2012 - This study in Health Affairs examines the experiences of four early adopters of the accountable care organization (ACO) model.
In the Literature
November 5, 2012 - With Commonwealth Fund support, the authors of this paper analyzed the cost profiles of physicians in Massachusetts to ascertain whether some physician types are more costly than others.
In Brief
November 2, 2012 - Can the nation's hospitals "go green" and save money in the process? According to a new study, the adoption of a range of environmentally sustainable policies by the health care sector could yield in excess of $5.4 billion in savings over five years, and $15 billion over a decade.
Issue Brief
November 1, 2012 - A new Commonwealth Fund study highlights a nearly decade-long trend of declining health insurance coverage and rising costs for workers in small businesses, particularly employees making less than $15 an hour.
Issue Brief
October 24, 2012 - Almost one in five Americans younger than 65 lived in families with high medical costs in 2009, roughly the same as 2006 despite widespread job and health insurance losses and declining incomes, according to a Commonwealth Fund-supported study by the Center for Studying Health System Change published by Health Affairs.
In the Literature
October 16, 2012 - The Affordable Care Act enacts a new payment system for private health plans available to Medicare beneficiaries through the Medicare Advantage program. The system aims to reduce the excess payments received by private plans, and reward plans that earn high performance ratings. This brief estimates savings the new policies will bring to Medicare.
Issue Brief
October 9, 2012 - The Affordable Care Act prohibited insurers from denying or limiting coverage for children in 2010. In response, some insurers ceased to offer coverage to children in need of individual health insurance, known as a "child-only" policy. This issue brief examines new state legislative and regulatory action to promote the availability of child-only policies.
Issue Brief
October 2, 2012 - With President Obama and Governor Romney offering fundamentally different visions for the nation's health system, the presidential election provides a stark choice for U.S. voters. This analysis contrasts the potential impact of implementing the Affordable Care Act in full with Romney’s proposals to repeal the law, eliminate many of the new requirements for insurance markets, and make changes in Medicaid and Medicare.
Fund Report
October 2, 2012 - In invited testimony before the House of Representatives Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis discussed two approaches to sustaining Medicare, the vital public insurance program for seniors and disabled Americans.
Testimony
September 13, 2012 - This issue brief finds that the high costs and relatively low enrollment numbers of the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan created under the Affordable Care Act, and the state-run high-risk pools operating in 35 states, indicate that high-risk pools in general are not a tenable long-term solution for insuring this population.
Issue Brief
September 12, 2012 - This Commonwealth Fund–supported study estimated the savings achieved by the Physician Group Practice Demonstration for all beneficiaries and specifically for dual-eligible beneficiaries—a population that has been difficult to manage because of high rates of illness burden, low socioeconomic status, and lack of social supports.
In the Literature
September 4, 2012 - This Commonwealth Fund–supported study measured the influence of decision aids on care and identified the characteristics of patients who chose surgery and the factors that influenced treatment costs.
In the Literature
August 29, 2012 - Compared with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the United States has a higher rate of potentially preventable deaths. Moreover, the pace of improvement in preventing deaths that could have been avoided with timely and effective health care is slowest in the U.S., according to this Commonwealth Fund–supported analysis.
In the Literature
August 23, 2012 - Citing the experiences of the Netherlands and Switzerland—where exchanges have been part of the health care landscape for some time—the authors of this study argue that additional measures will be needed to control costs and improve quality.
In Brief
August 22, 2012 - In the new state health insurance exchanges, consumers will be able to compare health plans with respect to actuarial value, or the percentage of health care costs that a plan would pay for the average person. This analysis illustrates the out-of-pocket costs that might result from plans with various designs and actuarial values.
Issue Brief