The Medicaid program is facing major new challenges.  The new health care law puts both significant new responsibilities and financial burdens on the program.  At the same time, Medicaid, as one of the three major federal entitlement programs, is a top priority for policy makers trying to address the federal government’s staggering budget deficits.  Unfortunately, [...]

The September 2010 issue of Health Affairs is devoted to two issues that arguably were insufficiently addressed by the Affordable Care Act:  medical liability and patient safety; and the growing nonemergency use of the nation’s hospital emergency rooms. The issue contains new estimates of how much medical liability costs the health care system overall; of [...]

Editor’s note: Earlier this summer, on July 7, Robert Butler died of leukemia. Butler was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and one of the nation’s leading authorities on aging and geriatrics. With the essay below by Christine Cassel, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine, Health [...]

Gulf Coast residents have only recently been able to mark, in Churchill’s words, “the end of the beginning” of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This week, these Americans and the entire nation also mark the fifth anniversary of another disaster: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Several months after these devastating storms, in its March/April 2006 edition, [...]

Don Berwick, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will address Implementing Health Care Reform: The Administration’s Priorities, at AHIP’s 2010 Medicare Conference, September 12-14, in Washington, D.C.  Health Affairs is a media partner for the conference. Berwick will highlight the Administration’s health reform priorities, including changes under the Medicare program and [...]

While the share of U.S. hospitals that had adopted either basic or comprehensive electronic health records rose modestly between 2008 and 2009, from 8.7 percent to 11.9 percent, only 2 percent of this country’s hospitals reported having records that would meet the federal government’s “meaningful use” criteria. These findings are reported today in a Health Affairs [...]

The latest Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) examines a new federal effort to encourage the adoption of electronic health records systems and related health information technology (IT). These systems have the potential to transform the delivery of health care. They can help reduce medical errors, guide physicians [...]

The September 2010 issue of Health Affairs is devoted to two issues that arguably were insufficiently addressed by the Affordable Care Act:  medical liability and patient safety; and the growing nonemergency use of the nation’s hospital emergency rooms. The issue contains new estimates of how much medical liability costs the health care system overall; of [...]

Joe Paduda hosts the latest edition of the Health Wonk Review at his blog, “Managed Care Matters.” Among the posts included is a Health Affairs Blog essay on the meaningful use of electronic health records by national health IT coordinator David Blumenthal and CMS admnistrator Don Berwick. Copyright © 2010 Health Affairs Blog. This Feed [...]

Susan Dentzer, Health Affairs editor-in-chief, will lead a discussion with speakers and audience in the opening session of ECRI Institute’s 17th annual conference, entitled “Comparative Effectiveness and Personalized Medicine: An Essential Interface.” The conference will be held on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, MD, October 19 and 20, 2010. Health [...]

Providers will have “no excuses” for not using electronic health records to improve care, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Susan Dentzer said in summing up an August 5 National Press Club even on health IT. Video from the event, cosponsored by Health Affairs and the Health Industry Forum at Brandeis University, is now availabe on the Health Affairs Web [...]

The August issue of Health Affairs, titled “Lessons From Around The World,” looks at the health systems in the developed nations of Spain and Switzerland. It also looks at the challenges faced by poor nations through the lens of Ethiopia. Researchers Kara Hanson and William Jack wanted to explore what would best motivate more doctors and [...]

Precisely two weeks after completing my medical internship, I proceeded to nearly kill a patient. July marked the start of my second year of residency at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital, and it was my first time being fully in charge of a patient. So begins Danielle Ofri’s Narrative Matters essay in the August issue [...]

Switzerland has been “rediscovered” as a source of inspiration for the American health care system – which is somewhat ironic, since, as former Swiss health minister Thomas Zeltner tells Tsung-Mei Cheng in an August 2010 Health Affairs interview, Switzerland’s model of “managed competition” among private health insurance plans is rooted in the work of longtime Health Affairs contributor Allan [...]

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law an extension of extra federal assistance to state Medicaid programs. The additional Medicaid funding was first approved as part of 2009 economic stimulus legislation and was due to expire at the end of the year. A Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation offers [...]

A new study released today by Health Affairs focuses on an often-neglected segment of Medicare enrollees: people ages 18–64 with permanent disabilities, a group that currently numbers eight million, or roughly one-sixth of the total number of Americans on Medicare. The 2008 survey of a nationally representative survey of noninstitutionalized Medicare beneficiaries was designed and [...]

The August issue of Health Affairs is titled “Lessons From Around The World.” One of the countries examined is Spain. In her editor’s note, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Susan Dentzer writes that Spain emerged from the Franco dictatorship in 1975 socially and economically behind much of the rest of Europe. But the demise of the old [...]

The latest Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) explores challenges facing the new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, a program designed to help those with illnesses who have had difficulty obtaining affordable health insurance. The brief reviews decisions that may need to be made by the administration and Congress [...]

Editor’s Note: Sheldon Horowitz of the American Board of Medical Specialties (photo and bio above) is a participant in today’s National Press Club briefing on meaningful use of health IT, cosponsored by Health Affairs and the Health Industry Forum at Brandeis University. The post below highlights salient points of Horowitz’s presentation and supplements his discussion. With approximately 750,000 of the nation’s [...]

Editor’s Note: Humayun Chaudhry, D.O., of the Federation of State Medical Boards (photo and bio above) is a participant in today’s National Press Club briefing on meaningful use of health IT, cosponsored by Health Affairs and the Health Industry Forum at Brandeis University. The post below highlights salient points of Chaudhrys presentation and supplements his discussionn In addition to Chaudhry, [...]