Health Affairs

A belated tip of the hat to two Health Affairs articles included in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s five most influential research articles by RWJF grantees in 2011: Evidence Links Increases In Public Health Spending To Declines In Preventable Deaths, by Glenn Mays and Sharla Smith; and Nurses’ Widespread Job Dissatisfaction, Burnout, And Frustration With [...]

November 9, 2011. Time fell back three days ago, leaving me one less hour of daylight to enjoy on a gorgeous Indian summer Wednesday. I’m the attending physician on a busy family medicine inpatient service, and it’s been a long week of patient care and meetings. I rush out of the hospital somewhere near 5 pm, [...]

In April 2012 a number of accountable care organizations (ACOs) will begin their contracts with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under Medicare’s Shared Savings and Pioneer ACO programs. The latest health policy brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides an overview of ACOs, their origins, and the current [...]

Video of the release event for the January issue of Health Affairs, “Confronting The Growing Diabetes Crisis,” is now available on the Health Affairs Web site.

WHAT:      More than 1,000 health care leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, government officials and others will join the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Health Affairs, the West Wireless Health Institute and keynote speaker Dr. Atul Gawande, at the Care Innovations Summit. WHO:       Marilyn Tavenner, Acting Administrator, [...]

At a recent symposium concerning both saving money and improving patient care, Health Affairs Editor-in Chief Susan Dentzer stated, “It is well established now that one can in fact improve the quality of health care and reduce the costs at the same time.”  This is exactly the principle behind the growing movement toward patient-centered care.  [...]

In June of 2011, I flew to Washington, D.C. to say good-bye to my friend, Alvin.  I wanted to be there with him and his family during his peaceful passage from this life.  Unfortunately, his end was not peaceful.  It was a nightmare because he, like too many patients being transferred from one level of [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Editor’s note: See additional posts discussing Pioneer accountable care organizations by Debra Ness and William Kramer and Douglas Hastings. The December 19 announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of 32 Medicare Pioneer ACOs underscores the transition of “shared savings” and “accountable care” from policy concepts to implementation. Perhaps more than any [...]

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 [...]

Editor’s note: See additional posts discussing Pioneer accountable care organizations by Steven Lieberman and Debra Ness and William Kramer. With the announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on December 19 of the Pioneer accountable care organization (ACO) model participants, CMS and its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) conclude a year [...]

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 [...]

As health care costs increase around the world, many countries are beginning to rely on disease registries, which can produce substantial savings. An international study of thirteen registries in five countries (Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) finds that registries enable health care professionals to engage in continuous learning as well [...]

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 [...]

On December 2, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services released both a final rule  and an interim final rule updating the medical loss ratio rule that it issued almost exactly a year ago.  The Department of Labor simultaneously issued a technical release giving direction to employer-sponsored health plans governed by the Employee Retirement [...]

In a recent Health Affairs article, researchers from RAND and Harvard highlighted the difficulties associated with implementing bundled payment, based on an evaluation of the PROMETHEUS Payment program, an initiative of the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3). They identified challenges to implementation on the part of both payers and providers, including defining the bundles; [...]

As Don Berwick ends his tenure as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a Health Affairs Web First article discusses what he has meant to the agency and to the American health care system. Author Harris Meyer also looks at the future of the agency under Marilyn Tavenner, Berwick’s principal deputy who [...]

As 2011 comes to a close, we draw ever closer to January 1, 2014, the day when the most significant changes wrought by the Affordable Care Act will come into effect.  Indeed, we are only weeks away from the halfway point between March, 2010, when the ACA was signed into law and October, 2013, the [...]

Productivity at a breast care center is laudable, but not if interactions with scared or vulnerable patients lose the individualized human touch, writes Colleen Fogarty in the November Health Affairs Narrative Matters essay. Fogarty, a physician who practices at a federally qualified health center, describes her mammogram and follow-up care at a respected, high-volume breast [...]