Health Affairs

Medicare Physician Payment: A Hollow Victory For The RUC

On May 9th, William Nickerson, Senior Judge in the Southern Maryland Federal District Court, issued a 15 page ruling against the six Augusta, GA primary care physician plaintiffs who challenged HHS’ and CMS’ longstanding relationship with the American...

Published Fri, May 18 2012 8:53 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Policy, Payment, Physicians, Primary Care, Uncategorized, Medicare, Health Law

Implementing Health Reform: Open Enrollment Progress For 2015

On December 30, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released several reports on enrollment numbers covering the second marketplace enrollment period to date. It released its first monthly ASPE (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation...

Published Wed, Dec 31 2014 10:19 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Health Reform, Insurance, States, Coverage

The Health IT Safety Center Roadmap: What’s Next?

On July 17, 2015, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released the Health IT Safety Center Roadmap that lays a path forward for progress in the field of health information technology-related patient safety. The...

Published Tue, Jul 21 2015 4:49 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Health IT, Featured, Organization and Delivery, ONC, EHRs, Health IT Safety Center Roadmap, Dean Sittig, patient safety organizations

From Sub-Saharan Africa To Seattle: Opportunities To Improve Health

Editor’s note: This blog post originally appeared on Impatient Optimists . The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is renowned for advocacy and investment in global health and development, in addition to other areas like U.S. education. As a MD...

Published Wed, Aug 26 2015 7:21 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Global Health, GrantWatch, Social Determinants of Health, Population Health, Medicaid and CHIP, CMMI, Long-term Services and Supports, infectious diseases, education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Washington State

Will The Readmission Rate Penalties Drive Hospital Behavior Changes?

Since the development of the metric in 1984 by Anderson and Steinberg , inpatient hospital readmission rates have been used as a marker for hospital quality. A good deal of attention is now being paid to the new readmission rate penalties in the Affordable...

Published Thu, Feb 14 2013 9:41 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Consumers, Policy, Payment, Health Care Costs, Spending, Medicare, Quality, Hospitals, Disparities

Census Numbers: The Trend Toward Government Coverage Continues

In its yearly survey of health insurance coverage, the U.S. Census Bureau published figures that underscore the trend toward greater dependence on government for coverage. The percentage of Americans on government health programs continues to grow, while...

Published Wed, Sep 14 2011 9:15 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Health Reform, Consumers, Employer-Sponsored Insurance, Medicare, Coverage, Medicaid, Innovation

New Health Policy Brief: The Family Glitch

A new health policy brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) looks at the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) so-called family glitch. Low-to-moderate-income families are eligible for a subsidy to purchase health insurance on...

Published Mon, Nov 10 2014 9:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Health Reform, Policy, Insurance, Employer-Sponsored Insurance, Coverage, Access, Health Law

Public Coverage Programs: Solving the Enrollment Dilemma

Editor’s Note: In addition to Alain Enthoven and Leonard Schaeffer (photos and bios above), this post is coauthored by David Helwig and Phil Lebherz. Helwig retired as President and CEO West Region for WellPoint, Inc., and he also served as chief...

Published Mon, May 09 2011 8:33 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Health Reform, Consumers, Policy, Insurance, States, Coverage, Hospitals, Medicaid, Children

Ways And Means Chair: Panel Won’t Consider Ryan Medicare Plan

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) said this morning that his committee will not take up a proposal this year to replace Medicare’s defined benefits formula with a “voucher” or “premium support” system in which seniors would shop...

Published Thu, May 05 2011 1:01 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Health Reform, Policy, Politics, Payment, Physicians, Spending, Medicare, Medicaid, Innovation

Accountable Care Organization Antitrust Guidance: Will Consumers Be Protected?

The final rule for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) changed the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) outlined in the proposed regulations in several respects: fewer quality and performance measures, reduced financial risk, and greater potential...

Published Mon, Nov 07 2011 12:07 PM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Health Reform, Consumers, Spending, Medicare, Competition

Medicare’s Reset On ‘Coverage With Evidence Development’

Medicare is poised to revise its “coverage with evidence development” (CED) policy, which has important implications for beneficiaries’ access to new medical technology as well as manufacturers’ reimbursement for their products. For years, Medicare has...

Published Mon, Apr 01 2013 6:44 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Payment, Medicare, Coverage, Comparative Effectiveness, Technology, Effectiveness

Collaborative Filtering: An Interim Approach To Identifying Clinical Doppelgängers

“The real challenge of human biology, beyond the task of finding out how genes orchestrate the construction and maintenance of the miraculous mechanism of our bodies, will lie ahead as we seek to explain how our minds have come to organize thoughts sufficiently...

Published Mon, Jun 17 2013 10:44 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: All Categories, Consumers, Health IT, Pharma, Innovation, Technology, Effectiveness, Science and Health, Research

Improving Patient Safety Incident Reporting? There’s An App For That

Patient safety incident reporting is a valuable source of information for providers, patients, and policymakers. It promotes accountability, learning, and improvement of patient safety culture. However, in high-income countries, incident reporting systems...

Published Wed, Jul 01 2015 6:00 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Health IT, Global Health, Technology, Patient Safety, Innovations in Care Delivery, Organization and Delivery, Costs and Spending, World Innovation Summit for Health, British National Health Service, Centre for Health Policy, CareReport, NHS

Whither Health Insurance Exchanges Under The Affordable Care Act? Active Purchasing Versus Passive Marketplaces

The health insurance exchange, the organizational innovation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is here to stay. The principle of consumer choice among private health plans, with financial subsidies for low-income households, is now firmly entrenched....

Published Fri, Oct 02 2015 7:03 AM by Health Affairs Blog

Filed under: Medicare, Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, Medicaid and CHIP, Miami, Los Angeles, Federal marketplaces, Denver, State exchanges, Covered California

Appeals Panels Affirm Injunction Against Fixed Indemnity Regulation, Turn Back Challenge To ‘Administrative Fix’

On July 1, the D.C. Circuit decided two appeals challenging aspects of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, accepting one challenge and rejecting the other. In Central United Life v. Burwell , a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of...

Published Sun, Jul 03 2016 12:48 PM by Health Affairs BlogHealth Affairs Blog

Filed under: Following the ACA, Insurance and Coverage, ACA litigation, administrative fix, West Virginia, fixed indemnity insurance, excepted benefits, standing

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