News Archive
Doctors, Patients, and Social Media [September 30, 2011]
Using The Basic Health Program To Make Coverage More Affordable To Low-Income Households: A Promising Approach For Many States [September 29, 2011]
Affordable Care Act Initiative Launched To Strengthen Primary Care [September 28, 2011]
How Does Growth In Health Care Costs Affect The American Family? [September 27, 2011]
Managing Patient Privacy And Security Data [September 26, 2011]
Adding Patients to The Decision Equation [September 23, 2011]
Innovating For More Affordable Health Care [September 22, 2011]
Projection Of Education Statistics To 2020 [September 21, 2011]
Obama Administration Proposes Spending Cuts In Health Programs [September 20, 2011]
Physician Assistant Workforce Reaches Record High [September 19, 2011]
Court Of Appeals Rejects Two Challenges To The ACA [September 9, 2011]
Medical Resident Burnout [September 8, 2011]
Too Few Health Professionals Obtaining Flu Shots [September 7, 2011]
Budget Control Act Of 2011: Implications For Medicare [September 6, 2011]
The New Metro Minority Map [September 2, 2011]
Mixed Signals: Trends In Americans’ Access To Health Care, 2007-2010 [September 1, 2011]
Tracking Poll Of Public Opinion About The Affordable Care Act [August 31, 2011]
CDC Launches New Data And Analysis Website [August 30, 2011]
Views Of College Presidents And The Public On The Value Of Online Learning [August 29, 2011]
White Paper On Accreditation [August 26, 2011]
NIH Releases Best Practices For Combining Qualitative And Quantitative Research [August 25, 2011]
Revised Rules On Researchers’ Financial Conflicts Of Interest [August 24, 2011]
Family Physicians Top List For Recruitment Requests [August 23, 2011]
Rising Hospital Employment Of Physicians [August 22, 2011]
Employers Predict Increases In Health Care Costs [August 19, 2011]
Academic Institutions Slow To Seek Authorization In Other States [August 18, 2011]
Gainful Employment Information Deadline [August 17, 2011]
Proposed Rules On Health Insurance Exchanges [August 16, 2011]
The Effect Of Rising Health Care Costs On U.S. Tax Rates [August 15, 2011]
Health Professions Accreditation And Diversity [August 12, 2011]
Accreditation And Accountability: Looking Back And Looking Ahead [August 11, 2011]
Proportion Of Workers Paying Into Social Security Declines Relative To Beneficiaries [August 10, 2011]
Medical Groups to Share Medicare Pilot Savings [August 9, 2011]
Health Care Opinion Leaders’ Views On Vulnerable Populations In the U.S. Health System [August 8, 2011]
Growing Contributions And Costs Of Family Caregiving [August 5, 2011]
Health Insurance Exchanges Expand Choice And Competition [August 4, 2011]
The U.S. Health System In Perspective: A Comparison Of 12 Industrialized Nations [August 3, 2011]
Higher Education In Tumultuous Times: A Transatlantic Dialogue [August 2, 2011]
The Implications Of Medicaid For Low-Income Communities [August 1, 2011]
Doctors, Patients, and Social Media
Physicians are highly engaged with online networks and social media. Nearly 90% of physicians use at least one site for personal use and over 65% for professional purposes. Overall, clinicians express significant interest in the potential applications of social media to their professions – whether via online physician communities, online patient communities or sites that could facilitate physician-patient interactions. A group of “Connected Clinicians” is using multiple social media sites for both personal and professional uses. These clinicians are the front-runners in applying social media to medicine, and are most eager to use it to positively impact patient care.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.quantiamd.com/q-qcp/doctorspatientsocialmedia.pdf.
Using The Basic Health Program To Make Coverage More Affordable To Low-Income Households: A Promising Approach For Many States
A report from The Urban Institute estimates national and state effects of implementing the Basic Health Program option in national health reform to provide near-poor adults with coverage like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Implemented nationally, such a policy would reduce these adults' annual premium and out-of-pocket costs from $1,652 to $196; lower the number of uninsured by 600,000; provide federal dollars that exceed baseline Medicaid/CHIP costs by 23 percent; reduce exchange enrollment from 9.8 to 8.2 percent of non-elderly residents; save states $1.3 billion annually in Medicaid costs; and raise risk levels in individual markets. State policy choices could change these results.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412412-Using-the-Basic-Health-Program-to-Make-Coverage-More-Affordable-to-Low-Income-Households.pdf.
Affordable Care Act Initiative Launched To Strengthen Primary Care
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today launched a new initiative made possible by the Affordable Care Act to help primary care practices deliver higher quality, more coordinated, and patient-centered care. Under the new initiative, Medicare will work with commercial and state health insurance plans to offer additional support to primary care doctors who better coordinate care for their patients. This collaboration, known as the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative, is modeled after innovative practices developed by large employers and leading private health insurers in the private sector.
Additional information can be obtained by clicking http://innovations.cms.gov/areas-of-focus/seamless-and-coordinated-care-models/cpci/.
How Does Growth In Health Care Costs Affect The American Family?
A Research Highlight from RAND summarizes the following publication: A Decade of Health Care Cost Growth Has Wiped Out Real Income Gains for an Average U.S. Family,” by Auerbach and Kellerman which appeared in the September 2011 issue of the journal Health Affairs.
The Research Highlight can be accessed by clicking http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/2011/RAND_RB9605.pdf.
Managing Patient Privacy And Security Data
According to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, data are quickly becoming one of the health industry’s most treasured commodities. The U.S. is embarking on the largest investment in health information technology (IT) ever with high hopes of improving patient outcomes, quality, and costs. Yet, health organizations are acutely aware that sensitive data can be easily compromised. In just the last year and a half, a breach of personal health information occurred, on average, every other day. Breaches erode productivity and patient trust. They’re costly, unpredictable, and unfortunately quite common.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://pwchealth.com/cgi-local/hregister.cgi?link=reg/old-data-learns-new-tricks.pdf.
Adding Patients to The Decision Equation
While evidence suggests that patients’ medical decisions in the United States, even momentous ones, are seldom well informed, greater use of shared decision making between clinicians and patients might help bridge the gap between the care patients want and the care they actually receive, according to a new report from the National Institute for Health Care Reform (NIHCR).
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nihcr.org/Shared-Decision-Making.pdf.
Innovating For More Affordable Health Care
A sponsored supplement, “Innovating for More Affordable Health Care,” was produced by Stanford Social Innovation Review for the California HealthCare Foundation.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://stanford.ebookhost.net/ssir/digital/12/ebook/1/download.pdf.
Projection Of Education Statistics To 2020
A publication from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provides projections for key education data. It includes statistics on enrollment and earned degrees conferred expenditures of degree-granting institutions. For the Nation, the tables, figures, and text contain data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2020.
The document can be accessed by clicking http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011026.pdf.
Obama Administration Proposes Spending Cuts In Health Programs
President Obama proposed $320 billion in reductions to Medicare and Medicaid as part of a $3 trillion deficit reduction plan he submitted to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The president's plan calls for cutting Medicare by $248 billion and Medicaid by $72 billion over 10 years. Among other Medicare reductions, the plan would reduce Medicare payments for bad debt, cut indirect graduate medical education by 10%, and reduce payment updates for post-acute providers. The administration also proposes three changes to payments for rural providers. First, starting in fiscal year 2013, it proposes to end add-on payments for hospitals and physicians in low-population frontier states. Next, it would reduce Critical Access Hospital payments from 101% to 100% of reasonable costs. Finally, it would eliminate the CAH designation for hospitals that are fewer than 10 miles from the nearest hospital.
The plan can be accessed by clicking
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/jointcommitteereport.pdf
Physician Assistant Workforce Reaches Record High
The American Academy of Physician Assistants released its 2010 Census Report. According to the Census, the number of practicing PAs reached 83,466 in 2010, a 100 percent increase over last 10 years. Female PAs outnumber their male counterparts by nearly 20,000. More than 30 percent of PAs practice in primary care, making it the largest specialty for PAs. Nearly 30 percent of PAs practice in single-specialty physician group practices and 40-percent have been in their current primary specialty for at least six years. The Census also shows that PAs enjoy their work, as 66 percent indicate they are satisfied or mostly satisfied with their career.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.aapa.org/uploadedFiles/2010%20Census%20Report%20National%20_Final.pdf.
Court Of Appeals Rejects Two Challenges To The ACA
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected two separate lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In the first case, the court found that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli did not have standing to challenge the law’s requirement that individuals purchase health insurance. The court also dismissed the second case, brought by Liberty University. It concluded that the court lacked jurisdiction because the case was a pre-enforcement action seeking to restrain the assessment of a tax.
Despite limitations placed on the number of hours medical residents spend working, more than half of internists in training exhibit signs of burnout and suboptimal quality of life, according to a large study of workforce stress from the Mayo Clinic. The results of the study appear in the September 7, 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 306, No. 9, pp. 952-960).
Too Few Health Professionals Obtaining Flu Shots
Data show that 63.5% of health care personnel were vaccinated against influenza during the 2010-11 season, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of 1,931 health care workers in the Aug. 19 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That rate is a slight increase from the 61.9% who received the seasonal flu vaccine during the influenza A (H1N1) pandemic in 2009-10. Physicians and dentists, who were grouped together in the CDC's figures, had the highest immunization rate of 84.2% in 2010-11. The rate was 69.8% for nurses and 57.2% for administrative staff. Also included in the study were nurse practitioners, physician assistants, allied health professionals and technicians. Despite the slight uptick, the vaccination rate for health care workers still falls below the Healthy People 2020 target rate of 90%.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6032a1.htm.
Budget Control Act Of 2011: Implications For Medicare
A new brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines how the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the process it creates for reducing the federal deficit over the next decade, could affect the Medicare program, health plans and providers, and the program’s beneficiaries.
The brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/8216.pdf.
A new report from the Brookings Institutions shows how the rapid growth of Hispanic and Asian origin groups and new internal shifts of African Americans are transforming the racial and ethnic demographic profiles of America’s largest metropolitan areas ahead of other parts of the country. An analysis of 1990, 2000, and 2010 decennial census data for the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas indicates that: Non-whites and Hispanics accounted for 98 percent of population growth in large metro areas from 2000 to 2010. Forty-two of the 100 largest metro areas lost white population, and 22 now have “majority minority” populations, up from 14 areas in 2000.
The paper can be accessed by clicking http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2011/0831_census_race_frey/0831_census_race_frey.pdf.
Mixed Signals: Trends In Americans’ Access To Health Care, 2007-2010
Likely reflecting the severe economic downturn and subsequent decline in demand for health care, the proportion of Americans who reported going without or delaying needed care declined modestly between 2007 and 2010, according to a national study released today by the Center for Health System Change (HSC) and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/1233/1233.pdf.
Tracking Poll Of Public Opinion About The Affordable Care Act
The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll for August 2011 indicates that 39 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Affordable Care Act (ACA), 44 percent are unfavorable, and 17 percent don’t know enough to say. Among the uninsured, only about half are aware that the law includes certain key components aimed at helping them afford coverage.
These results and other survey findings can be accessed by clicking http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/8217-F.pdf.
CDC Launches New Data And Analysis Website
CDC has created new data and analysis tools that are intended to serve as resources in the promotion of policy, system, and environmental changes to improve health. An interactive data set composed of 20 behavioral risk factors and health indicators, the Sortable Stats site compiles state-level data for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The tool links to related CDC resources. And makes it possible to (1) view, sort, and compare health data by State, Geographic region, or Federal region; (2) view health data by demographic categories (e.g., race, gender, age) and historical trends for states; and (3) save graphs and maps as images that demonstrate state trends and incidence rates.
The site can be accessed by clicking http://wwwn.cdc.gov/sortablestats/.
Views Of College Presidents And The Public On The Value Of Online Learning
The public and college presidents differ over the educational value of online courses. Only 29% of the public says online courses offer an equal value compared with courses taken in a classroom. Half (51%) of the college presidents surveyed say online courses provide the same value. More than three-quarters of college presidents (77%) report that their institutions offer online courses, which are more prevalent in some sectors of higher education than in others. While 89% of four-year public colleges and universities offer online classes, just 60% of four-year private schools offer them. Roughly one-in-four college graduates (23%) report that they have taken a class online, however, the share doubles to 46% among those who have graduated in the past ten years. Among all adults who have taken a class online, 39% say the format’s educational value is equal to that of a course taken in a classroom.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2011/08/online-learning.pdf.
A new White Paper, Quality Assurance in Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century and the Role of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) provides a brief description of the role of federal and state government in higher education and the evolution of accreditation, with particular emphasis on the work of CHEA and suggestions for future action.
The White Paper can be accessed by clicking http://www.chea.org/pdf/Fred_Harcleroad_2011.pdf.
NIH Releases Best Practices For Combining Qualitative And Quantitative Research
The National Institutes of Health released recommendations or best practices for scientists conducting mixed methods health research, which combines the strengths of quantitative research and qualitative research. Despite increased interest in mixed methods research in health fields and at NIH, prior to this report, there was limited guidance to help scientists developing applications for NIH funding that featured mixed methods designs nor was there guidance for reviewers at NIH who assess the quality of these applications. Mixed methods lends itself to research problems in which a singular approach would not allow a scientist to develop multiple perspectives and a complete understanding of the problem or research question. The report also provides suggestions on how to design a mixed methods study, outlines the challenges in mixed methods investigations, and addresses how to form, lead, and train a mixed methods research team.
Can be accessed by clicking http://obssr.od.nih.gov/scientific_areas/methodology/mixed_methods_research/index.aspx.
Revised Rules On Researchers’ Financial Conflicts Of Interest
The federal government has revised its policies governing researchers' financial conflicts of interest in ways that federal officials indicated would build public trust in the integrity of biomedical research by strengthening transparency and oversight. A final rule keeps largely intact the basic structure and design of the existing system for regulating financial conflicts of interest, in which universities, based on information disclosed to them by the researchers who work for them, are primarily responsible for ensuring compliance with the conflict of interest regulations. The NIH and other Public Health Service agencies would remain responsible for overseeing institutional compliance.
The final rule can be accessed by clicking http://grants.nih.gov/grants/FCOI_Final_Rule_inspection_Desk.pdf.
Family Physicians Top List For Recruitment Requests
The demand for family physicians continues to outstrip demand for other physician specialties and subspecialties, making family physicians the most sought-after physician group in recruitment and retention. The results are from a recent survey from Merritt Hawkins, a national physician search firm, which tracked more than 2,660 physician recruiting assignments from April 1, 2010, through March 31, 2011.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.merritthawkins.com/uploadedFiles/mha2011incentivesurveypreview.pdf.
Rising Hospital Employment Of Physicians
In a quest to gain market share, hospital employment of physicians has accelerated in recent years to shore up referral bases and capture admissions, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change’s (HSC) 2010 site visits to 12 nationally representative
metropolitan communities. Stagnant reimbursement rates, coupled with the rising costs of private practice, and a desire for a better work-life balance have contributed to physician interest in hospital employment, according to a new Issue Brief from the HSC.
The Issue Brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/1230/1230.pdf.
Employers Predict Increases In Health Care Costs
With the cost of employee health care benefits expected to increase next year at more than twice the rate of inflation, large U.S. employers are planning to have workers share more of the cost next year, according to a new survey by the National Business Group on Health. According to the survey, employers estimate their health care benefit costs will increase an average of 7.2% in 2012, which is slightly lower than this year's 7.4% average increase, but it is on a higher base and it still sharply outpaces the economy's anemic growth and business conditions. To help control those increases and begin driving down costs to avoid the Cadillac tax, employers are planning to use a wider variety of cost-sharing strategies. More than half of respondents (53%) plan to increase the percentage that employees contribute to the premiums, while 39% plan to increase in-network deductibles. Additionally, about one in four employers plans to increase out-of-network deductibles (23%) and out-of-pocket maximums (22%) next year. The survey, based on responses from 83 of the nation's largest corporations, was conducted in June 2011.
Academic Institutions Slow To Seek Authorization In Other States
A majority of colleges that offer distance-education programs outside their home state have not sought approval to educate students in those other states, a new survey has found. Conducted last month by the University Professional & Continuing Education Association and the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies, it examined how member institutions from those two organizations were responding to the federal "state authorization" rule, which requires colleges to comply with laws in all states where they enroll students to be eligible to receive federal student aid. Although a portion of the rule affecting distance education was recently struck down by a federal judge, state regulations remain in effect.
Information about the survey can be accessed by clicking http://upcea.edu/pdfs/UPCEA-WCET-Report.pdf.
Gainful Employment Information Deadline
The Department of Education announced that the deadline for reporting information on gainful employment programs to the secretary of education for the 2010-11 academic year has been extended to Nov. 15. The gainful employment regulations, part of the series of new rules the department released last fall on Title IV student financial aid program integrity, seek to ensure students who enroll in some higher education programs will earn enough money to repay their student loans. In general, the rules apply to all programs at for-profit schools and to all non-degree programs at traditional colleges and universities. These institutions face extensive new reporting and disclosure requirements for all existing gainful employment programs as well as a new notice and approval process for creating programs.
Gainful employment information can be accessed by clicking http://ifap.ed.gov/GainfulEmploymentInfo/index.html.
Proposed Rules On Health Insurance Exchanges
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Treasury released three proposed rules amounting to more than 400 pages to assist states in the development of health insurance exchanges:
Exchange Eligibility and Employer Standards: This HHS proposed rule details the standards and process for enrolling in qualified health plans and insurance affordability programs. It also outlines basic standards for employer participation in the Small Business Health Options Program.
Health Insurance Premium Tax Credit: This Treasury Department proposed rule provides a framework for how individuals and families with incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level will receive premium tax credits to help defray insurance costs.
Medicaid Eligibility: This HHS proposed rule would expand and simplify Medicaid eligibility and promote seamless health insurance coverage by coordinating Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program with the new exchanges.
The proposed rules will be published in the Federal Register on August 17.
This publication can be accessed by clicking http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/current.
The Effect Of Rising Health Care Costs On U.S. Tax Rates
Health care spending in the U.S. now accounts for 17.6 percent of GDP, a figure that could grow to 26 percent by 2035 if current trends continue. Public expenditures on health care, including Medicare, Medicaid, and other insurance and direct care programs, account for nearly half of all health care spending. If health care costs continue to rise, taxes will need to be raised to fund these programs. Indeed, the recent health reform law raised Medicare taxes on high-income workers to keep that program solvent for an additional decade or so.How high might tax rates on different groups have to go in the future to fund government health care programs? How large would the efficiency costs associated with these higher taxes be (i.e., how much GDP may be lost due to tax-motivated changes in labor supply and savings behavior)? These questions are the focus of a new working paper (#16772) from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
The paper can be accessed by clicking http://www.nber.org/aginghealth/2011no1/w16772.html.
Health Professions Accreditation And Diversity
Increasing diversity in the health professions has been identified as a societal imperative, most notably by two blue ribbon panels commissioned by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2003 to conduct a comprehensive review of research and practices. A new brief builds on findings from a national study published in the May 2007 report “Health Professions Accreditation and Diversity: A Review of Current Standards and Processes,” and outlines a set of consensus recommendations for ongoing dialogue and collaboration between health professions accreditors and health professions education institutions’ administrative and faculty leaders.
The brief can be accessed by clicking http://calhealthworkforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Health-Professions-Accreditation-and-Diversity_8-30.pdf.
Accreditation And Accountability: Looking Back And Looking Ahead
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) issued a new paper today entitled Accreditation and Accountability: Looking Back and Looking Ahead. It is an electronic compilation of ideas, recommendations, and suggestions. The document provides summaries of key observations and suggestions for each issue, followed by links to the CHEA documents cited. Issues addressed are: Public Accountability, Student Achievement, Information to the Public, Relationship with Federal and State Government Distance Education, International Accreditation and Quality Assurance, Degree Mills and Accreditation Mills, Transfer of Credit, and Financing Accreditation and Conflict of Interest.
This paper can be accessed by clicking http://www.chea.org/pdf/accred_account.pdf.
Proportion Of Workers Paying Into Social Security Declines Relative To Beneficiaries
Apart from the disabled, eligibility for Medicare is tied to Social Security eligibility. By 2035, there will be 1.9 workers for each Social Security beneficiary, down from 4.9 workers per beneficiary in 1960. This relatively small proportion of workers will bear the tax burden of paying for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. A report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) summarizes some of the agency's most recent projections for Social Security and provides background information on the program.
The report can be accessed by clicking
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/123xx/doc12376/SocSecInfographic_print.pdf.
Medical Groups to Share Medicare Pilot Savings
Four medical groups will split $29.4 million for achieving quality and savings targets in the fifth year of the Medicare Physician Group Practice Demonstration Program. Six groups did not qualify for shared savings in the fifth year of the demonstration, which seeks to better coordinate care across settings to improve the quality of care and reduce Medicare costs. All 10 practices will continue to participate in the PGP Transition Demonstration, a two-year supplement to the original demonstration that began in January.
Additional information can be accessed by clicking https://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=4047.
Health Care Opinion Leaders’ Views On Vulnerable Populations In the U.S. Health System
Most leaders in health care and health care policy believe traditional safety-net institutions such as community health centers, public hospitals, and faith-based and mission-driven organizations will continue to fulfill critical roles in the U.S. health system after implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to a Data Brief in the form of Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey (Stremikis 2011). Nearly seven of 10 respondents believe the new law will improve access and financial protection for vulnerable populations effectively and 70 percent support policies that would guarantee access to care for undocumented immigrants.
The Data Brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Data%20Brief/2011/Aug/1536_Stremikis_HCOL_vulnerable_populations_data_brief.pdf.
Growing Contributions And Costs Of Family Caregiving
Family support is critical to remaining in one’s home and in the community, but often comes at substantial costs to caregivers themselves, to their families, and to society. If family caregivers were no longer available, the economic cost to the U.S. health care and long-term services and supports (LTSS) systems would increase astronomically. According to a report from the AARP, the estimated economic value of their unpaid contributions was approximately $450 billion in 2009, up from an estimated $375 billion in 2007. The report also explains the contributions of family caregivers, details the costs and consequences of providing family care, and provides policy recommendations to better support caregiving families.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/ppi/ltc/i51-caregiving.pdf.
Health Insurance Exchanges Expand Choice And Competition
A new retail insurance marketplace will open up health plan choices to an estimated 12 million consumers in 2014 when health insurance exchanges (HIX) go live around the nation, and insurers compete for nearly $60 billion in premiums. A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers is based on in-depth health industry interviews and a nationwide survey of 1,000 consumers and 153 health insurance executives concerning their expectations around HIX. The report addresses key issues including: consumer preferences related to health insurance services, motivations and concerns of insurers regarding participating in small group and individual exchanges, the impact of different state exchanges, how insurers need to manage risk differently.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://pwchealth.com/cgi-local/hregister.cgi?link=reg/change-the-channel.pdf.
The U.S. Health System In Perspective: A Comparison Of 12 Industrialized Nations
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tracks and reports on more than 1,200 health system measures across 34 industrialized countries. This analysis from The Commonwealth Fund concentrated on 2010 OECD health data for Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Health care spending in the U.S. towers over the other countries. The U.S. has fewer hospital beds and physicians, and sees fewer hospital and physician visits than in most other countries. Prescription drug utilization, prices, and spending all appear to be highest in the U.S. as does the supply, utilization, and price of diagnostic imaging.
The can report be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2011/Jul/1532_Squires_US_hlt_sys_comparison_12_nations_intl_brief_v2.pdf.
Higher Education In Tumultuous Times: A Transatlantic Dialogue
Higher Education in Tumultuous Times: A Transatlantic Dialogue on Facing Market Forces and Promoting the Common Good is an essay based on the discussions of 30 college and university leaders. It analyzes prevalent challenges facing higher education and finds many colleges are struggling to adapt to changing and increasing demands from governments and diverse student bodies. These demands are complicated by issues of public distrust and the ever-evolving climate of global politics and the economy. New technologies change just as rapidly, and institutions must constantly adapt. An agenda for higher education moving forward is included.
The essay can be accessed by clicking http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pdf/2011TransAtlantic.pdf.
The Implications Of Medicaid For Low-Income Communities
Recent efforts to cut back funding and support for Medicaid go beyond Washington politics—they threaten the health of millions of Americans. For the past 45 years, Medicaid has been a largely successful program that delivers essential health services to a large segment of the population. A fact sheet describing what has been achieved by this program was produced by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
The fact sheet can be accessed by clicking http://jointcenter.org/sites/default/files/upload/research/files/Medicaid%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf.