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Health Affairs Top Ten Articles Of 2011: Medical Errors And More


January 6th, 2012
by Chris Fleming

Despite more than a decade of national focus on patient safety, medical errors and other adverse events occur in one-third of hospital admissions — as much as ten times more than some previous estimates have indicated, according to the most-read Health Affairs article published in 2011. The study, by David Classen and coauthors, appeared in [...]

Why Meaningful Use Of EHRs Matters: A Field Report


January 3rd, 2012
 
by Elaine Besancon and Sachin Jain

With the passage of the HITECH Act, there has been a push towards the broad and meaningful use of electronic health records.  Critics argue that electronic health record systems are not yet adequately developed.  The systems are ill-designed and clunky; poorly integrated into clinical workflow; and often times create more work without improving the quality of [...]

Pioneer ACOs: Moving Toward Needed Transformation In Health Care


December 27th, 2011
 
by Debra Ness and William Kramer

Editor’s note: See additional posts discussing Pioneer accountable care organizations by Steven Lieberman and Douglas Hastings. We have commended the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on this blog in the past for actions regarding Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) – but we’ve also noted the need to establish strong enough criteria to ensure that [...]

Media Partnership: 2012 Accountable Care & Health IT Summit


December 23rd, 2011
by Chris Fleming

Across the country, competition is emerging to establish leadership around new care delivery systems and the formation of different types of ACOs.  At the center of any accountable care strategy is the requirement to plan and implement the data sharing and analytics platforms that will enable the improved workflow and care coordination as well as support new [...]

Patient Medication Adherence: The Next Act


December 19th, 2011
by Valerie Fleishman

If we’re truly serious about reining in health care costs and improving patient outcomes at the same time, then improving medication adherence is absolutely key. And if we’re serious about improving medication adherence, then the time to strike is now. That’s because there are major opportunities in health reform and major trends in the health [...]

How Specialty Societies And Patient Advocacy Groups Can Advance Comparative Effectiveness Research


December 7th, 2011
 
by Norman Kahn and John Rother

Editor’s note. In addition to Norman Kahn and John Rother (photos and bios above), this post is coauthored by Timothy Lynch, JD, Director of Foundation Programs for the ABIM Foundation; David Hoyt, MD, Executive Director of the American College of Surgeons; and Steven Weinberger, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the American [...]

ACO Final Rule Addresses Perceived Barriers To Participation


October 20th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services today released the long-awaited final rule on the Medicare Shared Savings Prorgram, which sets standards for the creation of accountable care organizations. ACOs are designed to encourage physicians, hospitals, and other providers to coordinate with each other and provide better quality care more efficiently. They were advanced by Elliott Fisher and others in Health Affairs and established in the Affordable Care [...]

The Health Wonk Review Unadorned


October 13th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

With apologies to my more creative predecessors as Health Wonk Review hosts, there’s no theme today. (After all, how could one top Alistair Cookie?) I will get right to the great posts in this week’s edition. Costs And Premiums. At Managed Care Matters, Joe Paduda explores an apparent disconnect: flat medical costs coupled with rising [...]

Meeting To Focus On Improving Care Transitions Through Health IT


October 12th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

This Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, a working meeting of innovators, policy and health IT experts, health care providers, patient organizations, technology companies, and government agencies will convene in Washington to assess progress in improving transitions in care and prioritize how the increasing availability of health IT can address some of the most intractable challenges related [...]

Physician Payment Prominent On HA Blog September Most-Read List


October 5th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

Relatively higher physician spending in the United States is driven by higher fees, rather than greater practice expenses or training costs, according to the Health Affairs journal study discussed in the most-read Health Affairs Blog post for September. The study also finds that the gap between physician reimbursement for primary care versus speciality care is larger in [...]

Mortality Gains Unlikely Until Next Stage Of Meaningful Use EHR Requirements


September 16th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

The federal government is currently offering bonus payments through Medicare and Medicaid to hospitals, physicians, and other eligible health professionals who meet new standards for “meaningful use” of health information technology. Whether these incentives will improve care, reduce errors, and improve patient safety as intended remains uncertain. In a Health Affairs Web First study published [...]

Consumers Could Get Lab Test Results Themselves Under New Proposed Rule


September 12th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

President Obama has proclaimed this the first ever national health information technology week, and under a proposed new rule being issued today by the Department of Health and Human Services, patients anywhere in the country would be able to get their clinical test results directly from the lab. “In a lot of states, patients can only [...]

ACO 101: The Basics Of Accountable Care


August 29th, 2011
by Ron Klar

Regarding the subject of “health care reform” during the past year, it is certain that more has been written about, more conferences have been devoted to, and more consultants have been engaged for the topic of “accountable care organizations” (ACOs) than any other.  ACOs are in the spotlight both because of several provisions in the [...]

The Beacon Communities At One Year: The Mississippi Delta Experience


July 27th, 2011
by Karen Fox, Anna Lyn Whitt, Leigh Ann Ross, and Lauren Bloodworth

The federal government’s Beacon Program provides funding to 17 communities that have already made inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record (EHR) adoption and health information exchange. This is the fifth in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts in which leaders of several Beacon communities discuss their [...]

Jost’s Look At Court Fight Over Reform Tops HA Blog’s June Most-Read List


July 5th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

Tim Jost’s analysis of crucial appellate arguments over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act leads June’s list of most-read Health Affairs Blog posts. Jost examines the arguments before the federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in a challenge to the legislation brought by more than half the states and the National Federation of Independent [...]

Smaller Practices And The Patient-Centered Medical Home


July 1st, 2011
by Chris Fleming

A new national study of small and medium-size physician practices shows that this group is not using many of the organized care processes of the patient-centered medical home model of health system reform included in the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The study by Diane Rittenhouse of the University of California-San Francisco and coauthors was [...]

An ACO Is Born In Camden, But Can It Flourish In Medicaid?


June 23rd, 2011
 
by Jeffrey Brenner and Nikki Highsmith

Across the country, policy experts are heralding accountable care organizations (ACOs) as the way to rethink the delivery of higher quality and more efficient care. Yet Medicaid, which cares for many of the nation’s sickest and highest-cost patients, has been largely absent from the ACO conversation. Now that the June 6 deadline for comments to [...]

States And Health IT: Upcoming Conference


June 14th, 2011
by Chris Fleming

As mentioned before on this blog, Health Affairs is the official media sponsor for the upcoming 2011 State Healthcare IT Connect Summit, June 21-23 in Dulles, Virginia. If you are interested in the conference but can’t attend in person, you can participate via live Webcast. This option, which is complimentary for government participants and costs [...]

The Beacon Communities At One Year: The Tulsa Experience


June 1st, 2011
by David Kendrick

Editor’s note: The federal government’s Beacon Program provides funding to 17 communities that have already made inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record (EHR) adoption and health information exchange. This is the fourth in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts in which leaders of several Beacon communities [...]

A Way Forward For The Global Fund


June 1st, 2011
 
by Daniella Ballou-Aares and Brad Herbert

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has saved millions of lives, but now it is in crisis.  A string of revelations about the misuse of its grants to governments in developing countries, culminating in the recent news of the theft of $2.5 million worth of malaria drugs, has led some backers of [...]

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