The Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System continues to strive for increased access, quality, and efficiency in the U.S. health care system. To this end, the Commission co-sponsored with the Alliance for Health Reform its 2007 Bipartisan Congressional Health Policy Conference, an annual retreat for members of Congress to learn about critical issues in health policy, in January. Attended by members of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, the retreat facilitated honest and open discussion between principal decision-makers on such crucial topics as reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), public reporting and transparency, lessons from abroad, and state innovations. In February, the Commission co-sponsored with the Alliance for Health Reform and the Catholic Health Association a retreat for Congressional staffers in D.C., addressing similar issues.
The Commission has also released two Data Briefs since January: "Health Care Opinion Leaders' Views on Priorities for the New Congress" highlights the perspectives of a diverse group of experts on what the health care priorities for the 110th Congress should be, and "The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2006 National Healthcare Quality Report" addresses rates of improvement across measures of quality in U.S. health care.
In March, the Commission and the Alliance for Health Reform sponsored two briefings designed for individuals working on or interested in federal health policy. The first focused on the upcoming reauthorization and potential reform of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the second, to be released next week, addressed current proposals for expanding health insurance coverage.
In San Francisco at the end of March, the Commission will conduct the first of its three meetings of 2007. The members will visit Kaiser Permanente's San Francisco Medical Center to observe pioneering initiatives in health care organization and delivery and discuss how the lessons learned there can be translated to the U.S. health care system as a whole.
For more information, please visit the Commission on a High Performance Health System page.