Recommended Core Measures for Evaluating the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Cost, Utilization, and Clinical Quality

May 16, 2012 - This Commonwealth Fund data brief describes how more than 70 researchers came together as part of the Patient-Centered Medical Home Evaluators’ Collaborative to identify a set of standardized measures to assess patient-centered medical homes.

Data Brief

Integrating Immigrants into the U.S. Health System

May 11, 2012 - The authors of this Commonwealth Fund-supported study argue that physicians must develop competencies to provide culturally sensitive care to a more diverse patient population.

In Brief

Pay-for-Performance Programs to Reduce Racial/Ethnic Disparities: What Might Different Designs Achieve?

April 9, 2012 - With Commonwealth Fund support, researchers used Hospital Quality Alliance data on more than 4 million patients at 4,500 hospitals to analyze the effects of different pay-for-performance designs on disparities in care between minority and white patients.

In Brief

Toward a High Performance Health Care System for Vulnerable Populations: Funding for Safety-Net Hospitals

March 8, 2012 - This new report prepared for The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System offers a series of recommendations to help shore up safety-net hospitals and ensure they can continue to provide high-quality care to low-income, vulnerable patients once the health reform law is fully implemented.

Fund Report

Guiding Transformation: How Medical Practices Can Become Patient-Centered Medical Homes

February 27, 2012 - The patient-centered medical home has been proposed as a model for transforming primary care and improving efficiency and effectiveness in the health care system. This report outlines and describes the changes that most medical practices would need to make to become patient-centered medical homes.

Fund Report

New Opportunities for Integrating and Improving Health Care for Women, Children, and Their Families

February 8, 2012 - This issue brief highlights the efforts of Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and Vermont to integrate health care services for low-income women and children, especially through state Title V maternal and child health programs.

Issue Brief

The Income Divide in Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Help Restore Fairness to the U.S. Health System

February 7, 2012 - Adults in low- and moderate-income families are more likely to be uninsured, to lack a regular source of health care, and to struggle to get the health care they need compared to those in higher-income families, according to this new Commonwealth Fund survey.

Issue Brief

Building Medical Homes: Lessons From Eight States with Emerging Programs

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

Testimony: Premium Tax Credits Under The Affordable Care Act: How Will They Help Millions of Uninsured Americans Gain Affordable, Comprehensive Health Insurance

October 27, 2011 - In invited testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Health Care, the Fund's Sara Collins discussed the importance of the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits and other insurance affordability provisions that will ensure the health and financial security of working families.

Testimony

Promoting the Integration and Coordination of Safety-Net Health Care Providers Under Health Reform: Key Issues

October 13, 2011 - Safety-net health care providers face particular challenges in coordinating care for their low-income and uninsured patients. This Commonwealth Fund issue brief finds that successful efforts will require flexibility, as well as federal, state, and local financial resources to sustain the safety net and make the investments needed to upgrade capabilities.

Issue Brief

Ensuring Equity: A Post-Reform Framework to Achieve High Performance Health Care for Vulnerable Populations

October 7, 2011 - This Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System report examines the problems facing vulnerable populations and offers three strategies to close the health care divide.

Fund Report

Low-Quality, High-Cost Hospitals, Mainly in South, Care for Sharply Higher Shares of Elderly Black, Hispanic, and Medicaid Patients

October 5, 2011 - Hospitals marked by low quality and high costs have double the proportion of elderly black patients as high-quality, low-cost hospitals, according to a new study in Health Affairs. Similar disparities were found for elderly Hispanic and Medicaid patients.

In the Literature

Transforming Community Health Centers into Patient-Centered Medical Homes: The Role of Payment Reform

September 28, 2011 - This Commonwealth Fund report examines how changes in the way federally qualified health centers are financed could support the transformation of these critical safety-net providers into high performing patient-centered medical homes.

Fund Report

How Health Care Organizations Are Using Data on Patients' Race and Ethnicity to Improve Quality of Care

August 22, 2011 - In this study, former Harkness fellow Ruth Thorlby, M.Sc., and colleagues conclude that a lack of common standards governing the collection, analysis, and use of racial and ethnic data may hamper the ability of health care organizations to design programs that effectively address inequities in patient care.

In the Literature

Development of a Safety Net Medical Home Scale for Clinics

August 16, 2011 - The authors of this Commonwealth Fund-supported study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine developed a new tool to evaluate patient-centered medical home interventions in safety-net clinics.

In Brief