Palliative care, health policy, and health reform

From the Health Affairs Blog: In the United States, value is the new health care imperative – improving quality while controlling costs.  We spend nearly twice the rate of comparable nations, yet have poorer health outcomes.  In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), mandating a new emphasis on paying …

Webinar on insurance marketplace experience

From the Commonwealth Fund: Join a Commonwealth Fund–sponsored webinar on the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces, hosted by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers & the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Experts working with the three marketplace models—federal, partnership, & state—will assess progress in their states. What: The Affordable Care Act's Health …

Implementing health reform: An October through December enrollment report

From the Health Affairs Blog: On January 13, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services released a report on the Health Insurance Marketplace covering the first three months of open enrollment, October 1 through December 28, 2013. The data are reported cumulatively over the three month period rather than only for December, recognizing the …

Children’s EHR format available in USHIK

From the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHQR): The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’S) Children’s EHR Format has moved to the United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK). This  helps align the Children’s EHR Format with related knowledgebase information, such as IT artifacts related to meaningful use, health IT standards, & related clinical quality …

Making New York the healthiest state

From the Health Affairs Blog: In early December, the New York State Health Foundation and the New York State Department of Health cosponsored a summit focused on improving population health, with the title, “Making New York the Healthiest State: Achieving the Triple Aim.” We had hoped to convince a critical mass of health sector leaders to come together for …

Better care at lower cost: Is it possible?

From the Commonwealth Fund: Evidence continues to pour in that America's sky-high health care spending is not only unsustainable, it isn't making us any healthier either—especially compared with other advanced countries. But what are we to do about it? In Better Care at Lower Cost: Is It Possible?, we examine the sources of high costs in the …

Life expectancy approach for measuring disparities

From the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ): As a new way to measure health care disparities, a new AHRQ study proposes analyzing health insurance status and medical need over a typical lifetime by ethnic group. This life expectancy approach can estimate the number of years that racial/ethnic groups are subject to “health insurance double jeopardy,” …

Med Students, Free Clinics, and a Library: A Few of My Favorite Things

The UM Student Run Free Clinic was featured in the Atlantic for the work they're doing in Pickney, Mi. Every Saturday, three clinical and three pre-clinical med students (along with three UMMS  physicians) head a decommissioned branch of the Pickney Community Public Library to staff the entirely student run free clinic. The clinic promises to …

Hearsay or Fact: A Symposium on the Communication of the Affordable Care Act

"Hearsay or Fact," a free symposium sponsored by the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, the Knight-Wallace Fellows at Michigan, & the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation is scheduled for Monday, November 4, from 1:00 to 5:00 in the Michigan League Ballroom.  Participants include: Policy: John Z. Ayanian, MD, MPP, Director, Institute for …

New database from CMS: Medicare Provider Charge Data

The Department of Health & Human Services has created a database that for the first time gives consumers information on what hospitals charge.  The data, on the charges for services that are provided during the 100 most common Medicare inpatient stays and 30 common outpatient services, show significant variation across the country and within communities. For example, average inpatient …