The Commonwealth Fund Blog

The Commonwealth Fund has launched a blog, which will offer timely analysis and insight into health policy issues from Commonwealth Fund staff, fellows, and grantees.

In the most recent post, Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis and Executive Vice President Stephen C. Schoenbaum, M.D., say that the various health reforms under consideration by Congress are missing an overarching framework to set health system goals—as well as public policies and private sector actions—to ensure the U.S. health system reaches benchmark levels of performance by 2020. "Without a mechanism for setting long-range goals as well as immediate priorities for performance improvement," they argue, "we could fail to realize the enhanced impact and economies possible from concerted action."

Visit The Commonwealth Fund Blog regularly to see the latest posts, view reader comments, and join the discussion.
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Three Approaches to Health Care Reform

The new Fund report, Fork in the Road: Alternative Paths to a High Performance U.S. Health System, is the first to compare three different scenarios: one that includes a public plan option in which health care providers would be paid at rates that fall midway between current Medicare rates and private plan rates, among other payment reforms; one that includes a public plan option that links payments more closely to Medicare rates; and one that includes no public plan, instead relying exclusively on private plans. Read more »

Case Studies Focus on Organized Care Delivery Systems

The Commonwealth Fund's ongoing case study series on organized health care delivery systems illustrates how vastly different systems of care serving diverse populations can improve their performance using common strategies: information continuity, patient engagement, care coordination, team-oriented care delivery, continuous innovation and learning, and convenient access to care. In the new comprehensive overview of findings from the case studies—15 in all—Douglas McCarthy and Kimberly Mueller of Issues Research, Inc., discuss how these organizations have achieved significant improvements in clinical quality of care and control of chronic diseases, higher patient satisfaction, shorter waiting times, and reductions in hospitalizations, emergency visits, and prescription drug expenses. Read more »

Building Medical Homes in State Medicaid and CHIP Programs

Since 2006, more than 30 states have developed policies to improve Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) to advance medical homes. A new Commonwealth Fund–supported report from the National Academy for State Health Policy summarizes the work in the states and provides state policymakers with examples of promising practices and lessons learned. Read more »

A Standard for Health Insurance Coverage

Defining a standard for health insurance coverage is central to comprehensive health reform that includes a requirement for individuals to obtain coverage. In a new issue brief, Commonwealth Fund researchers compare existing state benefit mandates with the services and providers covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program's Blue Cross and Blue Shield standard benefit package—a level of comprehensive coverage generally available in employer-sponsored health plans. Read more »

Karen Davis on Health Cooperatives

As part of the health reform debate currently under way in Congress, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) has proposed the creation of "health cooperatives" as a potential alternative to a public health insurance plan and as a pathway to providing affordable health insurance to more Americans. In this blog post, Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis examines the history of health care co-ops and draws lessons applicable to the policy discussion. Read more »

Fund-Supported Project Improves Access to Care for New York Kids

A recent issue brief published by New York City's Human Resources Administration reports on a Fund-supported demonstration project aimed at finding ways to reduce the number of uninsured New York City children and improve continuity of coverage for those enrolled in public health insurance. The project matched records from student registers in 23 schools against administrative files for public insurance. The results of the project suggest that such data matching may be a valuable tool for improving outreach, enrollment, and retention strategies. Read more »

WhyNotTheBest.org: New Case Studies on Surgical Improvement, Safety-Net Hospitals, and Patient Experiences

New case studies of top-performing hospitals just added to WhyNotTheBest.org profile innovative improvement strategies. Two of the case studies, United Hospital Center: Improving Surgical Care Through Evidence-Based Education and Standardization and NorthShore University Health System: Achieving Rapid Improvement on Core Measures, inaugurate a series providing insights and lessons from hospitals working to improve surgical care and reduce complications. There are also new tools for improving surgical care processes. Another case study, The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation: Transforming a Public Safety Net Delivery System to Achieve Higher Performance, provides an example of a large safety-net hospital system that, facing significant challenges in caring for a complex population, has achieved high levels of performance in several clinical areas. Two other case studies, The Valley Hospital: Leaders Set the Tone for Patient Service and Satisfaction and Parkwest Medical Center: Focusing on Patient and Staff Satisfaction, showcase ways to improve patients' experiences.

Later this month, the site will be updated with the most recent performance data on the process-of-care and hospital patient satisfaction measures publicly reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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