Health Affairs

Read about the New York State Health Foundation’s “five-year, $35 million campaign to reverse the diabetes epidemic [in the Empire State] by improving clinical care, sustaining a comprehensive and coordinated care system, and promoting prevention.” The GrantWatch Profile in the January 2012 issue of Health Affairs, titled “New York State Health Foundation’s Diabetes Campaign Is Influencing [...]

Here are a few blog posts that caught my eye as I looked through blogs listed on GrantWatch Blog’s “Blogroll.” Other topics touched on are social media and quality of care. Global Health “Soros Pledges $27.4-Million for Rural African Development,” Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy Today blog, October 4. This short post summarizes an Associated Press article [...]

Below, we have listed the three most-read posts. Take a gander in case you missed one of them when the original tweet or e-alert was sent out. Make sure to read the comments on two of the posts, and add your own, if you are inclined to do so! 1. “The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and [...]

Today I want to tell you about a blog post published recently on the John A. Hartford Foundation’s health AGEnda blog. Its focus is patient-centered care. This post does not contain theoretical or hypothetical musings about that topic, and it is not a dry recitation of facts. Instead, the information presented here is very real, [...]

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), sent out a Letter to the Field on Dec. 14. The letter’s audience was RWJF grantees and partners (and for “the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted solely to the public’s health,” that encompasses a big group). Here is some of what she [...]

One of the most important unanswered questions about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is whether it will deliver on its promise to bend the cost curve. The law includes an array of provisions to rein in spiraling costs. These include eliminating cost barriers to effective prevention and screening measures in health insurance [...]

Below we list the three most-read GrantWatch Blog posts during the month of September. (GrantWatch Blog launched in March 2010.) If you missed the original posts, here’s a second chance. “Stem Cell Research: How Foundations Have Weighed In” by our regular GrantWatch blogger, Lee-Lee Prina. (Posted Sept. 15.) “Recent Foundation Funding in Global Health: Helping [...]

The costs of the medical liability system have received attention in Health Affairs recently, and the dialogue presents an opportunity for foundations to make a difference in the medical liability system in a new way. Best practices are emerging that offer a patient-centered approach to reduce medical malpractice lawsuits while also improving patient safety. The [...]

This month I received a letter from a physician who was dismayed to learn that a colleague was leaving medical practice. He wrote in his letter, “One of my dear friends was nudged into retirement because he didn’t order enough tests on the equipment which his practice had purchased…. His loss [to the field] is [...]

Our discussions at the recent health funders’ retreat at Brandeis University drove home an important point. The Affordable Care Act is a lot more than a series of provisions to assure access to health care coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. The new health reform law creates opportunities to develop fundamental and complementary payment and [...]

More from a meeting of foundations, cosponsored by Grantmakers In Health and others and held at Brandeis University, July 2010 How can philanthropies interested in health care delivery assist states in the complex task of implementing health reform? This was the topic that brought philanthropy types together in late July to share visions and to learn from one [...]

I had the good fortune to attend and participate in the Colorado Health Symposium, sponsored by the Colorado Health Foundation on July 28 in beautiful Keystone, Colorado. The symposium brought together 400 health professionals from Colorado, representing a variety of backgrounds, to discuss major health policy issues. This year’s theme was “Value in Health Care,” [...]

Why are people saying that we don’t know how to contain health care costs? I’d argue that we do know how. What we don’t know is how to get better practices accepted and spread. Behavior change is difficult, even when we can advance quality of care and contain costs. Let me give you one potent [...]

Here are some more items that have come across my desk in recent months that you may want to check out. Health Care for the Elderly Request for Proposals (RFP): The Step Up to Stop Falls: Falls Prevention Collaborative aims “to help older adults to continue living safely in the community for as long as [...]

Here are some posts of interest on other health philanthropy blogs. Health Reform: Cali[fornia] Urged to Start Early on New Health Insurance Exchange: This May 12 post reports on remarks of Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority (Massachusetts’s insurance exchange), at a joint hearing of the California Senate and Assembly health [...]

Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, which describes itself as “one of the leading philanthropy services firms supporting the efforts of individual, family, institutional and corporate philanthropists,” held a teleconference this week (on 4 May 2010) on “What Health Care Reform Means for Philanthropy.” Grantmakers In Health and CCM Family Advisors cosponsored the event. Listen to a [...]