News Archive
Behind The Numbers: Medical Cost Trends For 2012 [May 31, 2011]
Analysis Of A Permanent Prohibition On Implementing Health Reform Legislation [May 27, 2011]
The Condition Of Education 2011 [May 26, 2011]
Senators Ask CMS To Withdraw ACO Rule [May 25, 2011]
Health Care Providers Ready Themselves For The Coming Of ICD-10 [May 24, 2011]
World Health Statistics 2011 [May 23, 2011]
Obama Administration Releases Federal Spending Plans For Remainder Of FY 2011 [May 20, 2011]
Preparing Future Faculty To Assess Student Learning [May 19, 2011]
Core Competencies For Interprofessional Collaborative Practice [May 18, 2011]
Is College Worth It? [May 17, 2011]
Risk Adjustment Under The Affordable Care Act [May 16, 2011]
New Edition Of "Covering Health Issues" Is Online [May 13, 2011]
Why Increasing Numbers Of Women Are Failing To Obtain The Health Care That They Need [May 12, 2011]
Uninsured Have Inadequate Resources To Pay Potential Hospital Bills [May 11, 2011]
Overmedication Of Nursing Home Residents [May 10, 2011]
Generating Evidence For Genomic Diagnostic Test Development [May 9, 2011]
Home Health Care And Discharged Hospice Care Patients [May 6, 2011]
Gender Gap In College Enrollment, Performance, Persistence, And Graduation [May 5, 2011]
Leveraging The World Health Organization's Core Strengths [May 4, 2011]
Gainful Employment Regulation Involving Career Colleges Remains Controversial [May 3, 2011]
What The Proposed Regulations For ACOs Mean [May 2, 2011]
Affordable Care Act Provision To Improve Care And Lower Costs Is Implemented [April 29, 2011]
Realizing Health Reform’s Potential [April 28, 2011]
NIH Funds Rehabilitation Centers [April 27, 2011]
NIH Launches Web Resource On Complementary And Alternative Medicine For Health Care Providers [April 26, 2011]
Nursing Schools Adopt New Standards For Nursing Education [April 25, 2011]
Health Reform: Prospering In A Post-Reform World [April 22, 2011]
Geographic Variation in Health Care [April 21, 2011]
Raising The Age Of Medicare Eligibility [April 20, 2011]
How Health Care Reform Will Affect Various States [April 19, 2011]
Improving Patient Medication Adherence [April 18, 2011]
Report On Accountable Care Organizations [April 15, 2011]
Complementary And Alternative Medicine: What Individuals 50 And Older Discuss With Their Providers [April 14, 2011]
2011 Vacancy Survey Of U.S. Clinical Laboratories [April 13, 2011]
Consumers’ Priorities For Quality Hospital Improvement [April 12, 2011]
Drivers Of Spending On Hospital Care [April 11, 2011]
HHS Action Plan To Reduce Racial And Ethnic Health Disparities [April 8, 2011]
Improving Health Care Quality By Crossing The Chasm [April 7, 2011]
CBO Analysis Of Budget Proposal To Change Medicare And Medicaid [April 6, 2011]
How Can Institutional Review Boards Best Interpret Preclinical Data? [April 5, 2011]
Concepts From Aviation That Improve Patient Safety [April 4, 2011]
CMS Releases Proposed Rule For Accountable Care Organizations [April 1, 2011]
Behind The Numbers: Medical Cost Trends For 2012
This year’s report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC’s) Health Research Institute finds that the medical cost trend is expected to increase from 8% in 2011 to 8.5% in 2012. An interesting blend of reactions to the recession, the slow recovery, health reform, and other variables are factored into the medical cost trend in 2012. The report shares key findings, which includes an explanation of trends contributing to rising costs (accelerators) as well as decreasing cost trends (deflators).
The report can be accessed by clicking http://pwchealth.com/cgi-local/hregister.cgi?link=reg/behind-the-numbers-medical-cost-trends-2012.pdf.
Analysis Of A Permanent Prohibition On Implementing Health Reform Legislation
A letter from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce discusses the budgetary effects of legislation that would permanently prevent the use of appropriated funds to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) and provisions related to health care in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Public Laws 111-148 and 111-152, respectively.
The letter can be accessed by clicking http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12198/5-26-WaxmanLtr.pdf.
The Condition Of Education 2011
The Condition of Education 2011 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. Undergraduate enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities grew by 5 million students between 2000 and 2009. This increase is the largest in the undergraduate population in 30 years.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011033.pdf.
Senators Ask CMS To Withdraw ACO Rule
In a letter, seven Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to withdraw its proposed regulation for the Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) program, stating they have "serious concerns" with the rule as written. They believe it is increasingly clear that the proposed rule missed the target and will fail to accomplish its purpose.
The letter can be accessed by clicking http://www.aha.org/aha/letter/2011/110524-let-senate-rep-aco.pdf.
Health Care Providers Ready Themselves For The Coming Of ICD-10
A federal requirement affecting all physician practices, hospitals, and health plans will necessitate a switch from the current system of classifying diagnoses and procedures—known as ICD-9—to a dramatically different and expanded ICD-10 coding system on October 1, 2013. At that time, the number of diagnostic codes—in effect, the alphanumeric name badges that diagnoses carry for insurance billing and other purposes—will increase from about 14,000 to 69,000. Simultaneously, the number of codes for procedures that can be performed on an inpatient basis in hospitals will jump from about 3,800 to 72,000. The shift will affect just about every aspect of clinical and business operations since the codes document what clinicians do with patients and are embedded in nearly all clinical information and billing operations nationwide.
An article that describes the impending change appears in the May 2011 issue of Health Affairs. A copy can be accessed by clicking http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/5/968.full.
World Health Statistics 2011, a publication of the World Health Organization (WHO), contains an annual compilation of health-related data for its 193 Member States and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS2011_Full.pdf.
Obama Administration Releases Federal Spending Plans For Remainder Of FY 2011
This week, the Obama Administration released final spending plans for 2011, which implement the 2011 budget agreement reached by Congress and the administration in April. The spending plans include some increases as well as decreases.
The spending plans can be accessed by clicking http://www.asph.org/UserFiles/FY2011-HHS-ConsolidatedOperatingPlans.pdf.
Preparing Future Faculty To Assess Student Learning
The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) released a new report, Preparing Future Faculty to Assess Student Learning, which describes the need for greater faculty engagement in the assessment of undergraduate student learning and outlines a strategy for achieving this goal through enhanced preparation of graduate students. The report examines how model programs introduce graduate students to assessment concepts and approaches and identifies promising practices for scaling up these efforts within and across institutions of higher education.
Information on how to purchase a copy can be obtained by clicking http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=424.
Core Competencies For Interprofessional Collaborative Practice
A new report, Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice, was produced by an expert panel convened in 2009 by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC). The panel proposed four domains of core competencies needed to provide integrated, high-quality care to patients within the nation's evolving health care system. It also identified 38 specific sub-competencies that describe the essential behaviors across the four domains.
The report may be accessed by clicking https://www.aamc.org/download/186750/data/core_competencies.pdf.
College costs are rising, student debt is mounting, and the public is skeptical about the value of a college degree, according to two new surveys. Meantime, only 19% of college presidents say the U.S. system is the best in the world, but more than eight-in-ten college graduates say college was a good investment for them personally.
The reports can be accessed by clicking http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1993/survey-is-college-degree-worth-cost-debt-college-presidents-higher-education-system.
Risk Adjustment Under The Affordable Care Act
To achieve the aims of the Affordable Care Act, state and federal regulators must construct an effective system of risk adjustment, one that protects health insurers that attract a disproportionate share of patients with poor health risks. An issue brief summarizes a Commonwealth Fund-supported conference of leading risk adjustment experts, explores the challenges regulators will face, considers the consequences of the law's risk adjustment provisions, and analyzes the merits of different risk adjustment strategies.
The issue brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2011/May/1501_Hall_risk_adjustment_ACA_guide_for_regulators_ib.pdf.
New Edition Of "Covering Health Issues" Is Online
The completely updated 200-page Alliance for Health Reform sourcebook, "Covering Health Issues, 6th Edition" is available online. Written with reporters in mind,"Covering Health Issues" is useful for anyone looking for concise information on health policy issues and for experts from across the political spectrum. Chapters contain fast facts, background, tips for reporters, story ideas and experts with contact information.
The sourcebook can be accessed by clicking http://www.allhealth.org/health-issues-sourcebook2011/covering-health-issues-2011.pdf.
Why Increasing Numbers Of Women Are Failing To Obtain The Health Care That They Need
Women have greater health care needs than men and generally play larger roles in the health care of family members. Rising health care costs combined with sluggish income growth has contributed to losses in health insurance among women and rising rates of problems gaining necessary health care and paying medical bills. The Affordable Care Act is bringing change for women through required free coverage of preventive care services, small business tax credits, new affordable coverage options, and insurance market reforms, including bans on gender rating.
The issue brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2011/May/1502_Robertson_women_at_risk_reform_brief_v3.pdf.
Uninsured Have Inadequate Resources To Pay Potential Hospital Bills
A new report released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that few families without health insurance have the financial assets to pay potential hospital bills. On average, uninsured families can only afford to pay in full for approximately 12-percent of hospital stays they may experience – and even higher income uninsured families are unable to pay for most potential hospital stays. Hospital stays for which the uninsured cannot pay in full account for 95-percent of the total amount hospitals bill the uninsured. Other studies have estimated that the bills for all types of health care that the uninsured cannot pay – the uncompensated cost of care – is up to $73 billion a year, a significant portion of which is shifted into higher costs for Americans with insurance and their employers.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2011/ValueofInsurance/rb.pdf.
Overmedication Of Nursing Home Residents
A government report issued this week has documented a problem regarding the use of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes. Too many of these institutions fail to comply with federal regulations designed to prevent overmedication, giving nursing home patients antipsychotic drugs in ways that violate federal standards for unnecessary drug use. The report also found that these powerful, at times dangerous drugs were often prescribed for uses that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and do not qualify as medically accepted for Medicare coverage. Potentially most alarming, 88 percent of the time these drugs were prescribed for elderly patients with dementia, a population the FDA has warned faces an increased risk of death from this class of drugs.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-08-00150.pdf.
Generating Evidence For Genomic Diagnostic Test Development
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) held a workshop to explore how researchers can gather better evidence more efficiently on the clinical utility of genetic tests. A report, “Generating Evidence for Genomic Diagnostic Test Development,” compares the evidence that is required for decisions regarding clearance, use, and reimbursement, to the evidence that is currently generated. The report also addresses innovative and efficient ways to generate high-quality evidence and barriers to generating this evidence.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13133#description.
Home Health Care And Discharged Hospice Care Patients
A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) presents national estimates on home health care patients and discharged hospice care patients. Information on characteristics, length of service, medical diagnoses, functional limitations, service use, advance care planning, and emergent and hospital care use are presented.. A comparison of selected characteristics for 2000 and 2007 also is provided to highlight changes.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr038.pdf.
Gender Gap In College Enrollment, Performance, Persistence, And Graduation
A paper by Kelvin Pollard issued by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) indicates that the "feminization" of higher education is occurring. Young women now are more likely to enroll in and graduate from college than young men. The gap has widened in recent years due to stagnation in the rate of young men earning degrees. Moreover, this phenomenon is present among all major race and ethnic groups. Women not only represent a majority of young adults enrolled as college undergraduates, but they also now are nearly three-fifths of graduate students. A related item is an article by Dylan Conger and Mark Long that appeared in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science on how men are falling behind in the areas of performance and persistence.
The paper by Pollard can be accessed by clicking http://www.prb.org/Articles/2011/gender-gap-in-education.aspx.
The article by Conger and Longcan be accessed by clicking http://theop.princeton.edu/reports/wp/ANNALS_Conger,Long_Manuscript%20(Feb%2009).pdf
Leveraging The World Health Organization's Core Strengths
The World Health Organization (WHO) was formed in 1948 to act globally as the "directing and coordinating authority on public health" to promote the "attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health." At present, there is a U.S. government interagency review under way on policy approaches to WHO, along with calls from independent critics to reform the body's governing charter. On the question of whether WHO has value to U.S. global health policy and U.S. national interests, the answer, in the opinion of the authors of a new paper, is decidedly yes-provided that WHO narrows its focus strategically to those activities for which it is best suited and for which it has the greatest prospects of delivering substantial value.
The paper can be accessed by clicking http://csis.org/files/publication/110502_Reeves_LeveragingWHO_Web.pdf.
Gainful Employment Regulation Involving Career Colleges Remains Controversial
U.S. Education Department officials confirmed that the agency had sent a revised version of the regulation that would require colleges that offer vocational programs to show that they are preparing students for "gainful employment" to the White House Office of Management and Budget for its review, which should begin the process for a final release of the rule. For-profit colleges, the sector that would be affected by the rule, have expressed opposition.
A statement indicating why the rule is opposed can be obtained by clicking http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110503008044/en/Coalition-Statement-Gainful-Employment-Regulation-Delivery-OMB.
What The Proposed Regulations For ACOs Mean
A brief from PriceWaterhouseCoopers entitled “Stalking the ACO Unicorn” PwC’s brief Stalking the ACO Unicorn estimates the risk reward equation for interested providers. Figuring out the funds flow and market sizing will be complex and highly customizable for each ACO. The report also includes the top seven key findings from the proposed Medicare regulations, an implementation timeline, and FAQ.
The brief may be accessed by clicking http://pwchealth.com/cgi-local/hregister.cgi?link=reg/stalking-the-aco-unicorn.pdf.
Affordable Care Act Provision To Improve Care And Lower Costs Is Implemented
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today launched a new initiative that will reward hospitals for the quality of care they provide to patients covered by Medicare and help reduce health care costs. Authorized by the Affordable Care Act, the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program marks the beginning of an historic change in how Medicare pays health care providers and facilities-for the first time, 3,500 hospitals across the country will be paid for inpatient acute care services based on care quality, not just the quantity of the services they provide.
A fact sheet on the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program can be accessed by clicking www.HealthCare.gov/news/factsheets/valuebasedpurchasing04292011a.html.
The final rule establishing the program was placed on display at the Federal Register today and can be accessed by clicking http://www.cms.gov/HospitalQualityInits.
Realizing Health Reform’s Potential
Using a budget-based approach to measuring affordability, a new issue brief explores whether subsidies available through the Affordable Care Act are enough to make health insurance affordable for low-income families. Drawing from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the authors assess how much “room” individuals have in their budget, after paying for other necessities, to pay for health care needs. The results show that an overwhelming majority of households have room in their budgets for the necessities, health insurance premiums, and moderate levels of out-of-pocket costs established by the Affordable Care Act.
The Issue Brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2011/Apr/1493_Gruber_will_affordable_care_act_make_hlt_ins_affordable_reform_brief_v2.pdf.
NIH Funds Rehabilitation Centers
The National Institutes of Health has provided approximately $30 million over a five-year period to fund a network of centers to advance medical rehabilitation research. The centers are located at: Stanford University; Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; University of California, San Diego; University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston; Boston University; Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; and Dartmouth College and Simbex, Inc. in New Hampshire. The Medical Rehabilitation Research Network connects the research community with courses and workshops, research facilities, mentorship and consultations, and with experts at the network centers. It also provides researchers with small grants to test new ideas.
The Network can be accessed by clicking http://www.ncmrr.org/
NIH Launches Web Resource On Complementary And Alternative Medicine For Health Care Providers
A new online resource, designed to give health care providers easy access to evidence-based information on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), was unveiled today by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health. With this new resource, providers will have the tools necessary to learn about the various CAM practices and products and be better able to discuss the safety and effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine with their patients.
The site can be accessed by clicking http://nccam.nih.gov/health/providers/.
Nursing Schools Adopt New Standards For Nursing Education
In what is described as a bold move to transform nursing education at the graduate level, nursing schools affiliated with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) voted to endorse The Essentials of Master's Education in Nursing, a set of national standards for preparing nurses to have a high impact in the healthcare environment. The Master's Essentials, an update to earlier version adopted in 1996, reflect current and future nursing practice at the master's level, which demands expert application of evidence-based practices, quality improvement methods, outcomes measurement, systems knowledge, and leadership skills.
The Essentials can be accessed by clicking http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/essentials.htm.
Health Reform: Prospering In A Post-Reform World
While it might be overly dramatic to say that everything has changed with the passage of health reform, it can certainly be said that the health system of tomorrow will not be the same as today. To prosper in the post-reform world, health executives will need to reassess current strategies and find ways to work together. A PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute report illustrates the mega trends that each health sector will face as a result of health reform, the provisions in the law that are driving them, and recommendations on how organizations can turn these challenges into new opportunities.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://pwchealth.com/cgi-local/xregister.cgi?link=reg/prospering-in-a-post-reform-world.pdf.
Geographic Variation in Health Care
While research on geographic variation in health care use and spending has pushed the twin issues of uneven care and costs to the fore, it's ultimately the broader health care system-not geography-that matters most in improving efficiency and quality, according to a new Policy Analysis from the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Institute for Health Care Reform (NIHCR).
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nihcr.org/Geographic-Variation.pdf.
Raising The Age Of Medicare Eligibility
Several major deficit-reduction and entitlement reform proposals include raising Medicare's age of eligibility from 65 to 67 as a way of improving Medicare's solvency. A Kaiser Family Foundation report estimates the expected effects on such a change on the federal budget as well as on affected seniors' out-of-pocket costs, employers, Medicaid, and others in light of the major changes in coverage enacted under the 2010 health reform law.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/8169.pdf.
How Health Care Reform Will Affect Various States
A series of new reports by the RAND Corporation outlines the impact that national health care reform will have on individual states, estimating the increased costs and coverage that are expected in five diverse states once reform is fully implemented in 2016.
Individual state reports can be accessed by clicking http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/2011/RAND_RB9589.pdf.
Improving Patient Medication Adherence
An Action Brief from NEHI, a national network for health innovation, focuses on the $100+ Billion opportunity for improving patient medication adherence, solutions to address the financial and clinical consequences, and key policy recommendations to drive system-wide change. It is part of a series of briefing papers recommending actions that would reduce wasteful health care spending.
The Action Brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.nehi.net/publications/54/compact_action_brief_improving_patient_medication_adherence.
Report On Accountable Care Organizations
If implemented successfully, accountable care organizations (ACOs) will have the ability to achieve better care, better population health, and lower costs, according to a new report released on Thursday, April 14 by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2011/Apr/1494_Guterman_high_performance_accountable_care_v3.pdf.
Complementary And Alternative Medicine: What Individuals 50 And Older Discuss With Their Providers
Do Americans aged 50 and older discuss the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with their health care providers? To help answer this question, AARP and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) conducted a telephone survey of more than 1,000 individuals aged 50 and older. Just over half of those surveyed reported using complementary and alternative medicine and over a third take some type of herbal product or dietary supplement. Yet, only a third of all respondents and a little over half of CAM users said they have ever discussed CAM with their health care providers.
The results of the survey can be accessed by clicking http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camstats/2010/NCCAM_aarp%20survey.pdf.
2011 Vacancy Survey Of U.S. Clinical Laboratories
The primary objective of a survey conducted by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) was to estimate the rate of shortage within clinical laboratory departments. Overall, the study represents 625 facilities, 1,719 departments, 16, 274 employees, and 17,674 positions from across the United States. Across the nation, vacancy rates were highest for blood banking (11.6%), histology (9.81%), and chemistry (8.62%) departments. The lowest vacancy rates occurred in the departments of cytology (5.14%) and immunology (5.56%).
Survey results can be accessed by clicking http://labmed.ascpjournals.org/content/42/4/199.full.pdf.
Consumers’ Priorities For Quality Hospital Improvement
What are consumers' priorities in terms of hospital quality, and does the public have a role in driving quality improvement efforts? The research described in a report from the California Healthcare Foundation is intended to help hospitals set priorities for corrective action and to provide new insights for those involved in public reporting. Among the prominent findings is that consumers attach little importance to the patient safety domain until they are given examples of how failures in this domain could impact patients. After discussions about patient safety, consumers tended to assign this domain the highest priority.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.chcf.org/~/media/Files/PDF/C/PDF%20ConsumerPrioritiesHospitalQIImplicationsPubReporting.pdf.
Drivers Of Spending On Hospital Care
Advances in health care have helped Americans to live longer, healthier lives. This progress also has been accompanied by increases in health care spending that many view as unsustainable. Hospital care as a percent of total spending on health care services and supplies declined from 43 percent in 1980 to 33 percent in 2009 even as health spending overall has continued to rise. Yet, according to a report from the American Hospital Association (AHA), hospital care remains the largest single category of health care spending, illustrating hospitals' central role in providing care for the most acutely ill and injured patients. Understanding the drivers of spending is critical to shaping health care policies that will moderate cost growth without compromising quality or slowing the pace of innovation.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.aha.org/aha/trendwatch/2011/11mar-tw-costofcaring.pdf.
HHS Action Plan To Reduce Racial And Ethnic Health Disparities
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today launched two strategic plans aimed at reducing health disparities. The HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities outlines goals and actions HHS will take to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. HHS also released the National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity, a common set of goals and objectives for public and private sector initiatives and partnerships to help racial and ethnic minorities and other underserved groups reach their full health potential. The strategy, a product of the National Partnership for Action (NPA), incorporates ideas, suggestions and comments from thousands of individuals and organizations across the country. .
The Action Plan To Reduce Racial And Ethnic Health Disparities can be accessed by clicking http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/files/Plans/HHS/HHS_Plan_complete.pdf.
The National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity can be accessed by clicking http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/templates/content.aspx?lvl=1&lvlid=33&ID=286.
Improving Health Care Quality By Crossing The Chasm
The famed 2001 Institute of Medicine report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, demonstrated that U.S. health care suffered from so many shortcomings that it scarcely warranted the name. The report followed the equally famed 1999 IOM study, To Err Is Human, which estimated that avoidable medical errors contributed to 44,000-98,000 deaths at U.S. hospitals annually. How much has been accomplished since then and how much remains to be done are the subjects of the "Still Crossing The Quality Chasm," the April 2011 thematic issue of Health Affairs, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Additional information can be accessed by clicking http://www.healthaffairs.org/.
CBO Analysis Of Budget Proposal To Change Medicare And Medicaid
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) conducted a long-term analysis of a budget proposal by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan to change federal payments under the Medicare and Medicaid programs substantially, eliminate subsidies to be provided through new insurance exchanges under last year's major health care legislation, leave Social Security as it would be under current law, and set paths for all other federal spending (excluding interest) and federal tax revenues at specified growth rates or percentages of gross domestic product (GDP).
The analysis can be accessed by clicking http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12128/04-05-Ryan_Letter.pdf.
How Can Institutional Review Boards Best Interpret Preclinical Data?
Among the many challenges facing institutional review boards (IRBs) is to predict whether the activities and interventions proposed in a clinical trial protocol are likely to yield net harm or net benefit for trial participants. A paper in the March 2011 issue of PLoS Medicine addresses this important topic.
The paper can be accessed by clicking http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001011.
Concepts From Aviation That Improve Patient Safety
A Commonwealth Fund-supported study, published in Milbank Quarterly, identifies 15 safety practices that are routinely used in aviation, but mostly not in health care and examines their applicability to health care, potential resistance from physicians, and cost benefits. Certain aviation safety measures have been shown to improve safety in health care and save lives. This study identified and classified aviation safety measures not currently used in health care, including the "sterile cockpit rule," which reduces unnecessary distractions during critical activities and the "first-name-only rule," which promotes a culture where colleagues feel more comfortable questioning one another.
Additional information about the article can be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/In%20the%20Literature/2011/Mar/1490_Lewis_counterheroism_common_knowledge_ergonomics_MilbankQ_032011_ITL_v2.pdf.
CMS Releases Proposed Rule For Accountable Care Organizations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule yesterday for the new accountable care organization (ACO) program. At the same time, CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Justice in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service issued proposed policy statements regarding the legal issues around establishment of ACOs. The rule will be published in the April 7 Federal Register and comments will be accepted through June 6.
The rule can be accessed by clicking http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2011-07880_PI.pdf.