Health Affairs

Barbara Starfield, a seminal figure in the health services research community who made landmark contributions in primary care and other areas, died suddenly on Friday, June 10, of an apparent heart attack. Health Affairs extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Dr. Starfield. To help honor Dr. Starfield’s career, Health Affairs is... Read the rest of this entry »

Most children in the United States are getting regularly scheduled immunizations for infant and childhood diseases. But a new survey shows that some parents remain unpersuaded that all vaccines are safe or even necessary. The survey was published yesterday in the June issue of Health Affairs, a thematic volume titled “Strategies For The ‘Decade Of... Read the rest of this entry »

Two new studies published today in the June issue of Health Affairs project huge benefits from a major ramp-up of vaccine development and delivery over the next 10 years in 72 countries. The studies, both from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, find that boosting vaccine coverage could prevent the deaths of 6.4 million children,... Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow, Thursday June 9, at 8:30 AM at the W Hotel in Washington DC, Health Affairs will hold a briefing in conjunction with the release of its June 2011 issue, “Strategies For The ’Decade of Vaccines.’” A complete line-up of speakers and other details are available here. If you want to attend the briefing, you can RSVP... Read the rest of this entry »

In a remarkable recent interview, Donald Berwick MD, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), eloquently described his vision of value-based health care. Paying for value is an incentive…The underlying idea of improvement is that American health care, historically built in fragments, often cannot achieve for patients what it really wants to... Read the rest of this entry »

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... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a series of blog posts by Ron Klar offering suggestions on how to make the Medicare Shared Savings Program a more viable vehicle for the creation of accountable care organizations. You can read the first installment here. In this posting I will address the three financial issues... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: In addition to Brian Klepper and Paul Fischer (photos and bios above), this article is authored by Kathleen Anne Behan, a skilled trial and corporate lawyer who provides advice to a range of individual and corporate clients. She has 20 years of experience practicing law, including as a partner with Arnold & Porter LLP, and... Read the rest of this entry »

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 is expected to extend health coverage to some thirty-two million previously uninsured Americans.  Two of the many challenges faced by both the private sector and the government are getting a handle on rapidly rising medical costs and providing care to the many new enrollees with chronic illnesses who are... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a series of blog posts by Ron Klar offering suggestions on how to make the Medicare Shared Savings Program a more viable vehicle for the creation of accountable care organizations. This installment focuses on (1) the sharing model(s) for ACOs, and (2) the beneficiary issues of assignment,... Read the rest of this entry »

Are some primary care providers more equal than others in CMS’ proposed rule for accountable care organizations (ACOs)? As the June 6 deadline for comment approaches, we need to take a closer look at just how the proposed rule might shape the future of primary care. Here’s one big red flag: even though ACO participants... Read the rest of this entry »

The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) has grabbed the limelight as a new model of health care that offers an alternative to fragmented, impersonal and wasteful care that has become the norm throughout much of the U.S.  The PCMH model promises each patient a primary care provider leading an interdisciplinary care team, with the intent of... Read the rest of this entry »

One of the biggest challenges to realizing the full benefits of electronic health records (EHRs) has been moving their adoption beyond large integrated systems to safety net providers and physicians in small and solo practices. The new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Farzad Mostashari, may be particularly well prepared to deal with that challenge. Before... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note:This post is part of a series of Health Affairs Blog posts examining the proposed rule implementing the Medicare Shared Savings Program, issued March 31 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. You can read earlier posts in the series by Mark McClellan and Elliott Fisher, Douglas Hastings, and Ron Klar. Watch this... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of Health Affairs Blog posts examining the proposed rule implementing the Medicare Shared Savings Program, issued March 31 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. You can read subsequent posts by Douglas Hastings, Steven Lieberman, and Ron Klar. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services... Read the rest of this entry »

With the federal government poised to propose rules governing accountable care organizations, a broad array of public and private health care stakeholders has laid out a consensus on how to use ACOs and patient-centered medical homes to move toward the “triple aim” of better health, better care, and lower costs. The report, Better to Best:... Read the rest of this entry »

In the eyes of some, health reform  threatens to burn down the old house of the American health system before it has built the country a new one.  There are many who will not mourn the passing of the old, but it is fair to say that most health care leaders are extremely anxious to... Read the rest of this entry »

Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government was handed an unprecedented set of tools to forge innovation in health care delivery through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Now, as the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation begins its work, the goal is to achieve the vaunted “Triple Aim” of improving individuals’ experience of... Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, on February 19, under the pretext of cutting the federal deficit, the United States House of Representatives voted to eliminate funding and end reimbursement to health care providers supplying crucial sexual and reproductive health care to millions of women and men across the country.   The provisions are part of the House-passed Continuing... Read the rest of this entry »

Over the next decade I believe we are going to see a major transformation of American medicine. It won’t be the kind of transformation that is normally discussed at health care conferences and at inside-the-Beltway briefings. Nor will it be the kind of change anticipated by the people who gave us the Affordable Care Act... Read the rest of this entry »