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Real Health Care Reform In 2009 [January 30, 2009] Educational Attainment In The US: 2007 [January 29, 2009] Value In Health Care Series Of Articles [January 28, 2009] Endowment Losses In Academia [January 27, 2009] Federal Role In Promoting Health Information Technology [January 26, 2009] Pitfalls Of Overreaching In Health Reform [January 23, 2009] Federal Agencies' Experiences Demonstrate Challenges To Successful Implementation Of Health Information Technology [January 21, 2009] The Economic Downturn And Its Impact On Hospitals [January 16, 2009] Why Graduate Students Reject The Academic Fast Track [January 15, 2009] Current Approaches To U.S. Healthcare IT Are Insufficient [January 12, 2009] NIH Office Of Behavioral And Social Sciences Research Launches New Website [January 9, 2009] Health Amid A Financial Crisis [January 8, 2009] Retail-Based Health Clinics: Is The Boom Ending? [January 7, 2009] Hidden Cost Of Expanding Academic Research [January 6, 2009] HHS In The 21st Century: Charting A New Course For A Healthier America [January 5, 2009] Distance Education At Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions [December 31, 2008] New Website Launched For Health Care Quality Improvement [December 30, 2008] Primary Health Care—Now More Than Ever [December 29, 2008] Federal Budget Options: Health Care [December 24, 2008] Unfounded Health Scares Proliferated in 2008 [December 23, 2008] The Financial Downturn And Its Impact On Higher Education Institutions [December 22, 2008] Americans With Disabilities [December 19, 2008] Key Issues In Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals [December 18, 2008] State Of The USA Health Indicators [December 17, 2008] Making Medical Homes Work: Moving From Concept To Practice [December 16, 2008] Joint Commission Releases Sentinel Event Alert On HIT Implementation [December 15, 2008] Many Hospitals Do Not Share Information On Medical Errors [December 10, 2008] Greater Postsecondary Participation Among Older Adults [December 9, 2008] Mandatory Workplace Safety And Health Programs [December 8, 2008] National Report Card On Higher Education [December 5, 2008] University Tuition, Consumer Choice, And College Affordability [December 4, 2008] Primary Care Physicians And The Quality And Cost Of Medical Care [December 3, 2008] Health Care Coverage For Children Threatened By Declining Economy [December 2, 2008] UnitedHealth Group Launches Health Website For General Public [December 1, 2008] Real Health Care Reform In 2009 To help turn health care reform ideas into action, the Brookings Institution established the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform. The Center's focus is on key priority areas that are critical to the kind of reform that will improve not just the health care system, but the health of individual patients. A report on the topic of health reform can be accessed by clicking http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/1117_strategicreview_mcclellan/1117_strategicreview.pdf Educational Attainment In The US: 2007 A new report from the Census Bureau provides a portrait of educational attainment in the United States based on data collected in the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) and data collected in 2008 and earlier in the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS). 1 Previous U.S. Census Bureau reports on this topic were based on educational attainment data from the CPS. The ACS has a larger sample and provides statistics for small levels of geography, which is why it is now used as a main source of educational attainment data. This report provides estimates of educational attainment in the United States, including comparisons by demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p20-560.pdf . Value In Health Care Series Of Articles The journal Health Affairs has a Web-exclusive package that includes a series of papers examining different issues related to the value in health care. The papers focus on issues including health care efficiency, the provider payment system, measures of quality, accountability, and health information technology. These articles can be accessed by clicking http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.28.2.w205/DC3 . Two surveys released today show that college and university endowments have taken significant hits due to the recent economic downturn. The 2008 NACUBO Endowment Study (NES), conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and TIAA-CREF, provides data from 796 institutions in the U.S. and Canada and indicates that average endowment returns for fiscal year 2008 declined 3 percent. A second study, the NACUBO-Commonfund Institute Follow-up Survey, indicates that in the five months since the NES survey was completed, endowment funds have declined a further 22.5 percent. Both publications can be accessed by clicking http://www.nacubo.org/x7.xml . Federal Role In Promoting Health Information Technology When physicians use health information technology to its full potential, the result is fewer deaths, fewer complications, and lower health care costs, according to the first study to measure physicians' use of health IT in a hospital setting directly. In a “Perspectives on Health Reform” essay, David Blumenthal, M.D., director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, writes that the federal government can help providers overcome the financial, technical, and logistical obstacles to adoption of health IT. The essay can be obtained by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=792771 Pitfalls Of Overreaching In Health Reform The Financial Crisis And Global Health The health sector needs to take urgent steps to counter the negative consequences of the financial crisis on global health, but countries also need to take a longer term perspective so their health systems are more resilient in the future, according to participants in a high-level consultation on the issue. They suggested five areas of action for the World Health Organization (WHO) and policy-makers: leadership, monitoring and analysis, pro-poor and pro-health public spending, policies for the health sector based on primary health care, and new ways of doing business in international health. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/meetings/2009_financial_crisis_report_en_.pdf . Federal Agencies' Experiences Demonstrate Challenges To Successful Implementation Of Health Information Technology As the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and others have reported, the use of information technology (IT) has enormous potential to help improve the quality of health care and is important for improving the performance of the U.S. health care system. Given its role in providing health care, the federal government has been urged to take a leadership role to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care, and it has been working to promote the nationwide use of health IT for a number of years. However, achieving widespread adoption and implementation of health IT has proven challenging, and the best way to accomplish this transition remains subject to much debate. At the committee's request, recent testimony discusses important issues identified by GAO's work that have broad relevance to the successful implementation of health IT to improve the quality of health care. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09312t.pdf . The Economic Downturn And Its Impact On Hospitals Hospitals remain a source of health care, jobs, and economic growth for communities across the country, but are not immune to the declining economy, according to a new AHA TrendWatch report . Medicaid enrollment and unemployment are increasing, but federal funding continues to fail to cover the costs of care. "Consequently, hospitals' financial health through the current downturn hinges upon adequate funding from these programs," the report states. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.aha.org/aha/trendwatch/2009/twjan2009econimpact.pdf . Why Graduate Students Reject The Academic Fast Track Research universities may not be able to count on their ability to attract the best young faculty talent, a survey being released today suggests. The study — of more than 8,300 doctoral students at University of California campuses — finds that they increasingly care about finding careers at “family friendly” campuses and they doubt seriously that they can build such careers at a research university. Both men and women have these attitudes although they are more pronounced in women. The survey results appear in the new issue of Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors. The survey found that 84 percent of women and 74 percent of men are somewhat or very concerned about the family friendliness of their future employers. But only 46 percent of men and only 29 percent of women imagine jobs in research universities to be somewhat or very family friendly. The survey results may be of particular concern in that the graduate school experience is shifting Ph.D. students away from goals of having a career at a research university. Of those in the survey, 45 percent of men said that they started their graduate programs wanting to become professors with a research emphasis, but at the point of the survey, only 36 percent of men had that goal. For women, the drop was from 39 percent to 27 percent. Additional information may be obtained by clicking http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2009/JF/Feat/maso.htm . Current Approaches To U.S. Healthcare IT Are Insufficient Current efforts aimed at the nationwide deployment of health care information technology (IT) will not be sufficient to achieve medical leaders' vision of health care in the 21st century and may even set back the cause, according to a new report from the National Research Council. It concludes that greater emphasis should be placed on IT that provides health care workers and patients with cognitive support such as assistance in decision-making and problem-solving. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12572#toc . NIH Office Of Behavioral And Social Sciences Research Launches New Website Health Amid A Financial Crisis The global financial crisis could have profound implications for the health spending plans of national governments. Unless countries have safety nets in place, the poor and vulnerable will be the first to suffer, according to an article in the WHO Bulletin . The article can be accessed by clicking http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/1/09-010109/en/index.html. Retail-Based Health Clinics: Is The Boom Ending? Retail store-based health clinics, which provide basic preventive services and diagnose and treat simple health ailments, have proliferated rapidly in recent years. Younger families and people that have difficulty accessing health care services—including the uninsured and minorities—are among the groups most likely to use these clinics. Still, in 2007, only 1.2 percent of U.S. families reported they had visited a retail clinic during the past 12 months and only 2.3 percent of families reported ever having visited one, according to the Health Tracking Household Survey conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change. The boom in retail clinics, moreover, appears to be slowing. Continued fall-off in the growth of retail clinics would likely disproportionately affect underserved Americans who lack affordable alternatives for primary care. An Issue Brief at the Commonwealth Fund regarding this matter can be accessed by clicking http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/Tu_checkinguponretail-basedhltclinics_1199_ib.pdf?section=4039 . Hidden Cost Of Expanding Academic Research A study by Dorsey et al as reported in the January 2009 issue of Academic Medicine compares the streams of expenses and revenues associated with investment in a cohort of basic science investigators at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry for seven years. The authors evaluated a medical school's financial investment in 25 basic science faculty who were hired between 1999 and 2004 to expand basic science research. The authors compared direct and indirect costs with the extramural grant support generated by these investigators through 2006. Of the 25 faculty members hired, 24 (96%) remained at the school through 2006. From 1999 to 2006, the school invested a total of $69.0 million ($33.1 million in start-up costs and $35.9 million in indirect costs) to support the faculty members. Through 2006, these faculty members generated $99.7 million in extramural grant revenue ($70.7 million in direct grant revenue and $29.1 million in indirect grant revenue). Whereas the faculty generated $1.45 in total grant revenue per dollar invested, start-up expenses and incomplete recovery of indirect costs required the school to add 40 cents to every grant dollar generated to achieve financial equilibrium. The conclusion is that investments in basic science research, even when successful, may require significant financial subsidies from academic health centers. HHS In The 21st Century: Charting A New Course For A Healthier America The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—which boasts the largest budget of any federal department, spending approximately 2 billion dollars a day—profoundly affects the lives of all Americans. At the request of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the IOM's December 2008 report HHS in the 21st Century assesses whether HHS is “ideally organized” to meet the enduring and emerging health challenges facing our nation. The committee identifies many factors that affect the department's ability to address its range of responsibilities, including divergence in the missions and goals of the department's agencies, limited flexibility in spending, impending workforce shortages, difficulty in retaining skilled professionals, and challenges in effectively partnering with the private sector. In order to meet the nation's twenty-first century health care challenges, the committee believes the nation needs and deserves a department exceptional at performing its core function—protecting the health of all Americans. To achieve that goal, the Department of Health and Human Services must be revitalized. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12513#toc. Distance Education At Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) presents findings from "Distance Education at Postsecondary Institutions: 2006-07", a survey that was designed to provide national estimates on distance education at two-year and four-year Title IV eligible, degree-granting institutions. Distance education was defined as a formal education process in which the student and instructor are not in the same place. Thus, instruction may be synchronous or asynchronous, and it may involve communication through the use of video, audio, or computer technologies, or by correspondence (which may include both written correspondence and the use of technology such as CD-ROM). The report can be accessed by clicking http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009044.pdf. New Website Launched For Health Care Quality Improvement The Commonwealth Fund has launched a new Web site that allows health care providers, researchers, and professionals to conduct side-by-side comparisons of 4,500 hospitals nationwide, track performance over time against numerous benchmarks, and download tools to improve health care quality easily. The site can be accessed by clicking http://www.whynotthebest.org/. Primary Health Care—Now More Than Ever In The World Health Report 2008 , the World Health Organization (WHO) presented a critical assessment of primary health care around the world. Striking inequities and a lack of organization and investment in primary care are a threat to global health. Why a renewal of primary health care (PHC), and why now, more than ever? Globalization is putting the social cohesion of many countries under stress and health systems clearly are not performing as well as they could and should. Few would disagree that health systems need to respond better – and faster – to the challenges of a changing world. Primary health care can do that as shown in a new report entitled Primary Health Care—Now More Than Ever . The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf. Federal Budget Options: Health Care Every two years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issues a compendium of budget options to help inform federal lawmakers about the implications of various policy choices. Because of the major fiscal and policy challenges associated with health care, CBO has expanded its work in this area and divided its Budget Options volume into two reports: this first volume focuses solely on budget options related to health care—including financing, delivery, and access—within federal programs and the larger health care system. The second report, which will consist of options not related to health care, will be released in 2009. The first report can be accessed by clicking http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf . Unfounded Health Scares Proliferated in 2008 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the nation during the Great Depression, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Try telling that to Americans who read the media headlines in which a new or recycled health scare appears almost daily. In their latest roundup, scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) describe the genesis of 10 of the most outrageous health scares of 2008 and explain that they have little or no basis in scientific fact. Additional information can be obtained by clicking http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.1751/pub_detail.asp. The Financial Downturn And Its Impact On Higher Education Institutions The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) in Partnership with the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities (AGB) have produced a report dealing with the effects of a financial downturn on higher education institutions. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.agb.org/user-assets/Documents/Impact%20of%20the%20Economy%20on%20Higher%20Education.pdf. A new current population report from the Census Bureau provides information about the extent of disabilities in the U.S. in 2005. Of the 291.1 million people in the 2005 population of the United States, 54.4 million, or 18.7 percent, reported some level of disability (Table 1). Among this population, 35.0 million (12.0 percent of all people) reported a severe disability. Both the number and percentage of people with any disability was higher in 2005 than in 2002—51.2 million people and 18.1 percent in 2002. The number and percentage of people with a severe disability was also higher in 2005 than in 2002. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p70-117.pdf . Key Issues In Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals Concerns about the number of individuals who are uninsured and about the rising costs of health insurance and health care have given rise to proposals that would substantially modify the U.S. health insurance system. The complexities of the health insurance and health care systems pose a major challenge for the design of such proposals and inevitably raise questions about their likely impact. To assist the Congress in its upcoming deliberations, a report seeks to provide useful background information as well as insights into how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would estimate the effects of such proposals on the federal budget, the number of persons who have health insurance coverage, and spending for health care. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9924/12-18-KeyIssues.pdf . State Of The USA Health Indicators Researchers, policymakers, sociologists, and doctors have long asked how to best measure the health of a nation, yet the challenge persists. The nonprofit State of the USA, Inc. (SUSA) is taking on this challenge, demonstrating how to measure the health of the United States. The organization is developing a new website intended to provide reliable and objective facts about the U.S. in a number of key areas, including health and to provide an interactive tool with which individuals can track the progress made in each of these areas. In 2008, SUSA asked the Institute of Medicine's Committee on the State of the USA Health Indicators to provide guidance on 20 key indicators to be used on the organization's website that would be valuable in assessing health. Taken together, the selected indicators reflect the overall health of the nation and the efficiency and efficacy of U.S. health systems. The complete list of 20 can be found in a report brief and report. The report brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/60/828/SUSA%20report%20brief%20for%20web.pdf . The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12534#toc . Making Medical Homes Work: Moving From Concept To Practice Key operational issues facing medical home initiatives include how to qualify physician practices as medical homes; how to match patients to their medical homes; how to engage patients and other providers to work with medical homes in care coordination; and how to pay practices that serve as medical homes, according to a new Policy Perspective from researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) and Mathematica Policy Research (MPR). The Policy Perspective may be accessed by clicking http://www.hschange.com/CONTENT/1030/ . Joint Commission Releases Sentinel Event Alert On HIT Implementation The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) released a "Sentinel Event Alert” warning that the implementation of health information technology (HIT) and related medical devices without proper design and adoption strategies may negatively affect the quality and safety of patient care. The commission provides 13 recommendations for health care organizations to implement such technologies safely. The alert indicates that the exclusion of clinicians and other staff in HIT planning, lack of provider consideration on the impact of technology on care processes and workflow, and faulty or outdated technology are the primary contributors to technology-related medical errors. Additional information can be accessed by clicking http://www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_42.htm .
Most hospitals nationwide collect information about patient injuries or deaths that result from medical errors, but only one in five shares the data with managers and others who could implement measures to address the problems, according to a survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that appeared recently in the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care. The survey included responses from risk managers at more than 1,600 hospitals nationwide. An abstract of the study can be accessed by clicking http://qshc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/6/416 .Greater Postsecondary Participation Among Older Adults Despite successful efforts by some colleges and universities to create lifelong learning programs for adults aged 55 and older, many institutions remain stuck in outmoded, one-dimensional views of this population, a new report by the American Council on Education (ACE) with support from MetLife Foundation concludes. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ProgramsServices/CLLL/Reinvesting/MapDirections.pdf .
Mandatory Workplace Safety And Health Programs In 1998, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began work on developing a standard that would have required all workplaces to establish a safety and health program, which uses management tools that address general behaviors and procedures to reduce the risk of occupational injuries and illnesses. Although some states already had such programs in place, OSHA argued that worksites with such programs had lower rates of injury and illness and that a federal standard would extend this benefit to worksites without such programs. By 1999, however, OSHA had abandoned its rulemaking process, partly due to intense criticism of the effectiveness relative to the cost of the proposed standard. Prior studies have attempted to analyze whether, if implemented, the standard would have been effective in its goals and whether the benefit-cost trade-offs would have leaned in favor of one or the other. Unfortunately, these studies have been inconclusive for a variety of reasons. A report from Rand entitled Mandatory Workplace Safety and Health Programs takes an objective approach to assessing both the proposed OSHA standard and prior studies of its potential effectiveness, implementation and enforcement, and benefits and costs, concluding with recommendations to guide further analysis should federal or state authorities opt to revisit the rulemaking process for such a standard. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2008/RAND_TR604.pdf . National Report Card On Higher Education Since 2000, the Measuring Up report cards produced by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education have evaluated the progress of the nation and all 50 states in providing Americans with education and training beyond high school through the bachelor's degree. As in earlier editions, Measuring Up 2008 focuses exclusively on results, outcomes, and improvement. State performance is evaluated, compared, and graded in six key areas: (1) Preparation for college: How well are high school students prepared to enroll in higher education and succeed in college-level courses? (2) Participation: Do young people and working age adults have access to opportunities for education and training beyond high school? (3) Affordability: How difficult is it to pay for college when family income, the cost of attending college, and student financial aid are taken into account? (4) Completion: Do students persist in and complete certificate and degree programs in college? (5) Benefits: How do college-educated and trained residents contribute to the economic and civic well-being of each state? (6) Learning: How do college-educated residents perform on a variety of measures of knowledge and skills? The report can be accessed by clicking http://measuringup2008.highereducation.org/print/NCPPHEMUNationalRpt.pdf . University Tuition, Consumer Choice, And College Affordability A report was issued earlier this week entitled, “University Tuition, Consumer Choice and College Affordability.” It called for a change in the public discussion about college costs — both what it costs to run public universities and for students and their families to attend them. The report was released by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and focuses on public research universities. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nasulgc.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=1296 . Primary Care Physicians And The Quality And Cost Of Medical Care A paper entitled, How is a Shortage of Primary Care Physicians Affecting the Quality and Cost of Medical Care? released by the American College of Physicians (ACP) documents the value of primary care by reviewing 20 years of research. An annotated bibliography based on a literature review of more than 100 studies documents the evidence to support the critical importance of primary care in providing patients with better outcomes at lower cost and the urgency of the need to prevent shortages of primary care physicians. The paper can be accessed by clicking http://www.acponline.org/advocacy/where_we_stand/policy/primary_shortage.pdf .
Health Care Coverage For Children Threatened By Declining Economy Children's health care coverage is threatened by increasing unemployment, declining state revenues, and a growing gap between family income and the cost of health care coverage, according to a recent report by Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. The report by the Institute's Center for Children and Families estimates that 4.1 million Americans, including 1.2 million children, have lost employer-based coverage over the past year. Potential federal actions to address the crisis include temporarily increasing federal support for Medicaid and promptly reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program, set to expire in April 2009, to soften the impact of the economic downturn on uninsured children. The report can be accessed by clicking http://ccf.georgetown.edu/index/cms-filesystem-action?file=ccf% UnitedHealth Group Launches Health Website For General Public UnitedHealth Group today launched a health Web site for the general public that will allow users to check symptoms, find specific health or disease information, and store personal medical information online. The site, called myoptumhealth.com is the first from a major health insurer that is not limited to health plan members or employees of large corporate clients. The site is run by UnitedHealth's health and wellness unit, OptumHealth. The tools and calculators on the site will be available to users at no cost. The site can be accessed by clicking http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/ .
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