PSRO update

Newsletter for Massachusetts physicians, providing updates on the development of Professional Standards Review Organizations (PSROs) as Medicare and Medicaid standards were established.Index from January 1976 through December 197

Metro Richmond Latino Health Services & Resource Guide – 2006

This Guide was produced by the VCU Institute for Women’s Health, VCU Center on Health Disparities, and CLAS Act Virginia as a resource for the fall 2006 Latino Health Summit: Latino Cultures and Beliefs in Health Care. The purpose of this Guide is to provide a practical tool for community health care professionals to use in their work by assisting in cataloguing key provider and patient resources and services. The guide will be posted on the VCU Institute for Women’s Health and VCU Center on Health Disparities websites, which will be updated on a regular basis

Realizing Health Reform's Potential: How the Affordable Care Act Will Strengthen Primary Care and Benefit Patients, Providers, and Payers

Examines issues in primary care and outlines the 2010 healthcare reform law's provisions to strengthen it, including temporary hikes in Medicare and Medicaid payments and support for innovations in care delivery and primary care workforce development

Medical Licensing: An Obstacle to Affordable, Quality Care

In the United States, the authority to regulate medical professionals lies with the states. To practice within a state, clinicians must obtain a license from that state's government. State statutes dictate standards for licensing and disciplining medical professionals. They also list tasks clinicians are allowed to perform. One view is that state licensing of medical professionals assures quality. In contrast, I argue here that licensure not only fails to protect consumers from incompetent physicians, but, by raising barriers to entry, makes health care more expensive and less accessible. Institutional oversight and a sophisticated network of private accrediting and certification organizations, all motivated by the need to protect reputations and avoid legal liability, offer whatever consumer protections exist today. Consumers would benefit were states to eliminate professional licensing in medicine and leave education, credentialing, and scope-of-practice decisions entirely to the private sector and the courts. If eliminating licensing is politically infeasible, some preliminary steps might be generally acceptable.States could increase workforce mobility by recognizing licenses issued by other states. For mid-level clinicians, eliminating education requirements beyond an initial degree would allow employers and consumers to select the appropriate level of expertise. At the very least, state legislators should be alert to the self-interest of medical professional organizations that may lie behind the licensing proposals brought to the legislature for approval

Closing the Divide: How Medical Homes Promote Equity in Health Care

Presents findings from the Commonwealth Fund 2006 Health Care Quality Survey, and demonstrates how having stable insurance, a regular provider and, in particular, a medical home, improves health care access and quality among vulnerable populations

PSRO update

Newsletter for Massachusetts physicians, providing updates on the development of Professional Standards Review Organizations (PSROs) as Medicare and Medicaid standards were established.Index from March, 1975 through December, 197

Rhetoric and Reality The Obamacare Evaluation Report: Access to Care and the Physician Shortage

President Barack Obama's first term was defined by the battle over, and the passage of, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the landmark health-reform legislation known popularly as Obamacare. Along the way, Obama, the law's supporters, and independent analysts such as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) made specific claims or projections about how the law would affect consumers, patients, and businesses.Now, three years after Obamacare's passage, many key provisions of the legislation are beginning to be implemented. Whether implementation succeeds or fails will be strongly influenced by the reactions of states, providers, insurers, businesses, and consumers to the law's provisions and to the thousands of pages of new health-care regulations.Rhetoric and Reality is a project of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress that is designed to offer an ongoing, objective, and accessible perspective on the law's performance in light of key claims or projections made about it. Our project will examine the law's effect on Americans in five overarching areas: health-care costs, insurance coverage, employment, access to care, and consumer-driven health plans. Additional topics may be added.Each evaluation will be based on the best available data and will be revised as new or more authoritative data become available

Using Insurance Standards and Policy Levers to Build a High Performance Health System

Analyzes Rhode Island's use of state health insurance regulatory authority to promote healthcare reform, including improved accessibility, quality, and affordability. Outlines the rationale for and process of developing standards and the expected impact

Still Searching: How People Use Health Care Price Information in the United States, New York State, Florida, Texas and New Hampshire

Americans bear a large and growing share of their health care costs in the form of high deductibles and insurance premiums, as well as copayments and, sometimes, coinsurance for physician office visits and hospitalizations. Historically, the health care system has not made it easy for people to find out how much their care will cost them out of pocket. But, in recent years, insurers, state governments, employers and other entities have been trying to make price information more easily available to individuals and families. Are Americans trying to find out about health care prices today? Do they want more information? What sources would they trust to deliver it?This nationally representative research finds 50 percent of Americans have tried to find health care price information before getting care, including 20 percent who have tried to compare prices across multiple providers. Representative surveys in four states— New York, Texas, Florida and New Hampshire—show higher percentages of residents in Texas, Florida and New Hampshire have tried to find price information and have compared prices than New York residents and Americans overall. This variation suggests factors at the state level might be influencing how many people try to find out about health care costs. Nationally and in those four states, more than half of people who compared prices report saving money. Most Americans overall think it is important for their state governments to provide comparative price information. But we found limited awareness that doctors' prices vary and limited awareness that hospitals' prices vary.Public Agenda conducted this research with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New York State Health Foundation. The findings are based on a nationally representative survey of 2,062 adults, ages 18 and older, and a set of representative surveys in four states: one survey of 802 adults in New York, one of 808 adults in Texas, one of 819 adults in Florida and one of 826 adults in New Hampshire. The surveys were conducted from July through September 2016 by telephone, including cell phones, and online

Are We Heading Toward Socialized Medicine?

Defines socialized medicine, examines claims that the State Children's Health Insurance Plan and Democratic presidential candidates' reform plans would lead to government-run health care, and compares the plans with Republicans' market-oriented proposals