Health Affairs

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, [...]

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 [...]

At his blog Wright On Health, Brad Wright posted a holiday shopping edition of the Health Wonk Review yesterday. Brad includes Emma Dolan’s Health Affairs Blog post, “Implementing Bundled Payment: No Pain, No Gain?” Dolan describes the progress that has been made in overcoming challenges to implementing bundled payment arrangements. Her post responds to a [...]

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 [...]

In a rural town in western Uganda, Nagasha struggled to find the money to pay for her baby’s delivery at a faith-based hospital. She was forced to sell part of her harvest and her husband had to work overtime to come up with the 20,000 Ugandan Shillings. However, when preparing for the birth of her [...]

October’s list of most-read Health Affairs Blog posts is led by Maribeth Shannon’s piece on the challenges of getting consumers involved in directing their health care. Several posts on the Medicare Shared Savings Program (ACOs) final rule also make the list, as do posts on the legal fight over health reform; the process of determining [...]

Health Affairs is pleased to be a media partner for the World Congress 7th Annual World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress (WHIT) on November 7-8 in Vienna, Virginia. Annually, WHIT gathers hundreds CIOs, CTOs, CIOs, CMIOs and other senior level IT executives to discuss how health care can further be improved with the use and the implementation of [...]

Editor’s note: See additional posts on the Medicare Shared Savings Program Final Rule  and related delivery system and payment reform initiatives by Debra Ness and William Kramer, Lawrence Casalino and Stephen Shortell,  Douglas Hastings, and Don Berwick and Richard Gilfillan. The release yesterday of the regulation to launch the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) marks [...]

Editor’s note: See additional posts on the Medicare Shared Savings Program Final Rule  and related delivery system and payment reform initiatives by Debra Ness and William Kramer, Lawrence Casalino and Stephen Shortell,  Douglas Hastings, and Mark McClellan and Elliott Fisher. Innovation has revolutionized medicine.  Technology enables us to peer into the depths of the human body to [...]

If the United States is to reduce the growth of its debt over the long term, and if Americans are to have access to affordable medical care, we will have to reinvent our health care system to deliver better care and achieve better health at lower costs. This “three-part aim” has animated much policy discussion [...]

In 2001, we experienced the unimaginable. In 2011, we know we need to expect the unexpected. Over the past decade, we learned a lot of hard lessons about what it means to be adequately prepared for diseases, disasters and bioterrorism. We’ve made smart, strategic investments, and there’s been a lot of progress to show for [...]

As both a Canadian and an analyst who focuses on US healthcare, I have an abiding curiosity in comparisons between the US and Canadian systems, so it was with great interest that I read the recent Health Affairs article by Dante Morra and coauthors entitled “US Physician Practices Versus Canadians: Spending Nearly Four Times As Much Money [...]

The burden imposed on our society by type 2 diabetes mellitus has grown dramatically over the last decade.  Greater numbers of people than ever before are being diagnosed with diabetes at younger ages.  These people and their families must face the spectrum of implications brought on by diabetes, including its many associated medical complications. The [...]

On July 7, 2011, Health Affairs will unveil its July 2011 issue, “New Directions In Systems Innovations.” The issue explores ongoing innovations in health care organization, delivery and financing across a broad front – from Vermont’s recent passage of single payer legislation, to new responsibilities for hospital boards of trustees as a consequence of the [...]

On July 7, 2011, Health Affairs will unveil its July 2011 issue, “New Directions In Systems Innovations.” The issue explores ongoing innovations in health care organization, delivery and financing across a broad front – from Vermont’s recent passage of single payer legislation, to new responsibilities for hospital boards of trustees as a consequence of the [...]

Immunizing the world’s children against infectious diseases has dramatically cut childhood death and suffering in recent decades.  In 2010, philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates called for a new “Decade of Vaccines” to vault the progress dramatically forward. The June 2011 issue of Health Affairs, sponsored by the Gates Foundation, examines the strategies that will be [...]