From Center for market intelligence
Health Care
Feature Reports
Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January - June 2009
National Center for Health Statistics, December 16, 2009
From January to June 2009, 45.4 million persons of all ages (15.1%) were uninsured at the time of interview, 58.4 million (19.4%) had been uninsured for at least part of the year prior to interview, and 31.9 million (10.6%) had been uninsured for more than a year at the time of interview.
Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism
The Trust for America’s Health and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, December 15, 2009
This seventh annual report finds that the H1N1 flu outbreak has exposed serious underlying gaps in the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies and that the economic crisis is straining an already fragile public health system. Twenty states scored six or less out of 10 key indicators of public health emergency preparedness. Nearly two-thirds of states scored seven or less.
The Hospital That Could Cure Health Care
Newsweek, December 7, 2009
The Cleveland Clinic, where president Obama went in July to see high-quality, cost-efficient medicine in action, has miniaturized robotic tools that can repair a heart valve through an incision less than an inch long, a computer system that allows doctors to read patients' charts and write orders from anywhere in the world, and the last word in networked, interactive supply closets. Any time a nurse takes something from a shelf, it's recorded by a program that keeps a running count of 350 items in hundreds of locations, and can dispatch a self-guided robot cart to bring replacements from the warehouse. A century after Henry Ford began building cars on an assembly line, Cleveland Clinic has brought that technique to medicine, updated to reflect the latest Japanese-inspired thinking on "lean manufacturing" and "continuous-cycle improvement." Cleveland Clinic is a hospital trying to be a Toyota factory.
The Prevention Myth
Bloomberg Markets, November 2009
One bipartisan idea to fix U.S. health care is to save money by catching ailments early-an approach economists reject as a misconception that’s clouding the debate.
Maybe It's Time to Slow Down the Pace of Medical Treatment
Washington Post, September 15, 2009
Ten years ago, as I contemplated opening my own family medical practice, "more time" was my mantra. I had spent several years working in both private and public clinics and desperately wanted to escape the 15-minute office visit. Realizing that this amount of time is simply what most doctors consider feasible once the costs of running a practice are subtracted from revenue, I decided to shift the balance: I designed a practice with very low overhead, principally by eschewing private insurance contracts, which devour not only time but about 45 percent of the overhead in many practices. The Society for Innovative Medical Practices recently reported that more than 5,000 primary care physicians have made similar choices, adopting a range of models from concierge care (where patients pay a set fee each month) to fee-for-service.
Consumers' Experience in Massachusetts: Lessons for National Health Reform
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, September 1, 2009
This report examines the impact of state health reform efforts on the lives of ordinary people in Massachusetts, including a look at coverage provided by both public programs and private sources. It focuses specifically on people's ability to afford and obtain needed care.
Why Pharma Wants ObamaCare
Forbes, August 20, 2009
Despite all the Sturm und Drang emanating from town hall meetings, there's still a very good chance some kind of health care reform bill will pass this year. And one of the biggest forces working toward that goal is America's biggest pharmaceutical companies, which are expected to pour as much as $150 million into advertisements supporting the reform effort.
Health Care in Crisis: How We Got into This Mess
BusinessWeek, July 26, 2009
While the debate over health care and its inherent costs rages on, what is being left out of the discussion is how the U.S. got to the point where medical treatment could bankrupt the nation in our lifetime. First of a five-part series.
Shortage of Doctors Could Damage Healthcare Reform
Reuters, July 23, 2009
A growing shortage of primary care doctors could place a major burden on the U.S. healthcare system if President Barack Obama succeeds in extending medical insurance to millions of Americans who currently lack it.
The Family Doctor: A Remedy for Health-Care Costs?
BusinessWeek, July 6, 2009
The primary-care doctor is gaining new respect in Washington. Battles may be breaking out left and right over the various health-care bills emerging from Congress, but reformers on both sides agree that general practitioners should be given a central role in uniting the fragmented U.S. medical system. This vision has a name: the "patient-centered medical home."
Insured, but Driven Bankrupt by Health Crises
New York Times, June 30, 2009
Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured. And so, even as Washington tries to cover the tens of millions of Americans without medical insurance, many health policy experts say simply giving everyone an insurance card will not be enough to fix what is wrong with the system.
The Five Big Health-Care Dilemmas
Time, June 15, 2009
Max Baucus, the Senate's point man on health care, sounds supremely confident when he talks about the odds that Congress will pass its most sweeping piece of social legislation since the New Deal. "Meaningful, comprehensive health-care legislation passes this year. That's a given," he declares. The rest of us might be forgiven if we view Baucus' prediction with a little more skepticism. After all, universal health care is a cause that comes around every 15 or 20 years in Washington, and Presidents as far back as Woodrow Wilson have tried and failed to make it happen. And yet there are signals coming from Capitol Hill back rooms and corporate boardrooms that suggest things could be different this time.
How Congress Might Tax Your Health Benefits
NPR, June 6, 2009
Lawmakers are considering taxing health benefits to help pay for ambitious plans to overhaul the U.S. health system, estimated to cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years. There's a lot of money at stake: Because health benefits are excluded from payroll and income taxes, the U.S. Treasury lost out on $226 billion in 2008, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Polls show the public isn't happy about the idea.
New Effort Reopens a Medical Minefield
New York Times, May 6, 2009
The Obama administration plans to spend $1.1 billion over the next few years on studies to compare the effectiveness of competing treatments for common conditions like back pain, heart disease and prostate cancer. The studies will be publicly released, to help doctors and patients decide which treatment options they want to pursue. Supporters include many medical researchers, consumer groups, unions and insurers. They say such studies are essential to curbing the widespread use of ineffective treatments and to helping control health care costs, which totaled $2.2 trillion in 2007, or 16 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. But potential opponents — which include medical products companies, some doctors and their political allies — warn that the comparative effectiveness movement could lead to inadequate treatment for some patients and even the rationing of health care.
Medicine Goes Digital
The Economist, April 16, 2009
Given its history of innovation, the health-care sector has been surprisingly reluctant to embrace information technology (IT). Whereas every other big industry has computerized with gusto since the 1980s, doctors in most parts of the world still work mainly with pen and paper. But now, in fits and starts, medicine is at long last catching up.
Going Abroad to Find Affordable Health Care
New York Times, March 20, 2009
At least 85,000 Americans choose to travel abroad for medical procedures each year, according to a recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Treatment includes dental implants, hip and knee replacements, heart valve replacements and bypass surgery. The cost of surgery performed overseas can be as little as 20 percent of the price of the same procedure in the United States, according to a recent report by the American Medical Association. Medical tourism is expected to expand quickly in the coming years because of rising health care costs in the United States, increasing availability of international facilities with United States accreditation, and the fact that insurers and employers are beginning to embrace the practice.
21% of Americans Scramble to Pay Medical, Drug Bills
USA Today, March 13, 2009
Millions of Americans struggled last year to pay for health care or medications, the largest poll ever conducted by Gallup shows. As the economy fell, the percentage who reported having trouble paying for needed health care or medicines during the previous 12 months rose from 18% in January 2008 to 21% in December, according to the poll of 355,334 Americans. The poll, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, shows that struggles to pay crossed all socioeconomic lines but hit some Americans harder than others: More than half of the uninsured had trouble paying for health care or medications during the year. So did more than 30% of blacks and Hispanics, compared with 17% of whites and 13% of Asians.
Americans Speak on Health Reform: Report on Health Care Community Discussions
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 2009
In December 2008, the Presidential Transition Team invited Americans to host and participate in Health Care Community Discussions to talk about how to reform health care in America. Over 9,000 Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia signed up during the holiday season to host a Health Care Community Discussion and thousands more participated in these gatherings. Friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers, representing the views of both health care patients and providers, came together in homes, offices, coffee shops, fire houses, universities, and community centers with a common purpose: to discuss reforming the health care system. After each Health Care Community Discussion, hosts were asked to fill out a Participant Survey summarizing the group's main concerns and suggestions. Committed to bringing all Americans to the table, the Health Policy Transition Team and a group of dedicated volunteers read and analyzed, line-by-line, the 3,276 group reports. This extensive and intense engagement of the public in policy development by the Federal government is unprecedented and historic, as is this study, which systematically analyzed the information generated by the Health Care Community Discussions.
Tracking the Contribution of U.S. Health Care to the Global Competitiveness of American Employers and Workers: 2009 Business Roundtable Health Care Value Comparability Study
Business Roundtable, February 28, 2009
Multiple prior comparisons of the performance of the U.S. health care system with competitor countries have found that it consumes a much larger share of national income to achieve health and quality of care that are no better, and are in some cases worse, than other industrialized countries and some rapidly developing countries. Business Roundtable commissioned Mercer Health and Benefits to construct an annual study that reflects the impact of these international differences in health system performance on the global competitiveness of U.S. employers and their workforces.
Health Insurers, Poised for Round 2
New York Times, February 28, 2009
Almost every business in the country is feeling buffeted by the recession. But for health insurance companies, the bleak economy is only part of the problem: the changing of the guard in Washington is an equal if not more dangerous threat. Together, these forces could deal a body blow to a business model that was already teetering. Health plans are losing millions of members who say they can no longer afford their products. Some big employers are becoming increasingly frustrated — and vocal — about how much they spend on health benefits. Smaller ones are being crushed by ever-rising health care costs. On top of that, the Republicans who pushed to expand the role of private players in the health care system have largely been replaced by Democrats who want to overhaul it. As the conversation intensifies in Washington about health care reform, no one knows for sure what role the insurance industry will play in a revamped system.
Slowing the Growth of Health Care Costs — Lessons from Regional Variation
New England Journal of Medicine, February 26, 2009
The expansion of health insurance coverage in the United States is likely to be on the front burner of health care reform efforts in the new presidential administration. But boiling on the back burner is perhaps the most serious threat to Americans' access to care: rapid growth in health care costs. Pessimism abounds. Most observers see rising costs as an inexorable force, blame advancing technology, and conclude that only by rationing beneficial care or making draconian price cuts can we slow the growth of health care costs. But a careful look at variations in spending growth and spending patterns among U.S. regions reveals a more optimistic picture. By learning from regions that have attained sustainable growth rates and building on successful models of delivery-system and payment-system reform, we might, with adequate physician leadership, manage to "bend the cost curve."
CVS's Bold Bet on Health-Care Reform
BusinessWeek, February 23, 2009
During his 15 years as CEO of CVS, Tom Ryan transformed the company from a New England drugstore chain into a national health-care colossus with $76.3 billion in annual sales. He did that through a string of major acquisitions, paying $27 billion for drug middleman Caremark in 2007 and $2.9 billion for West Coast regional chain Longs Drug Stores last October. CVS/Caremark is now one of the 20 biggest companies in America, surpassing Boeing, Target, and Johnson & Johnson. The Woonsocket outfit is the largest single buyer and dispenser of prescription drugs in the nation. The Longs deal extends the chain's retail presence from Maine to Hawaii, with nearly 7,000 stores and more than 50 million users of its CVS loyalty card in the U.S. What does Ryan intend to do with his drugstore empire? His goal, he says, is to help transform America's expensive and often ineffective health-care system.
A Premium Sucker Punch
Washington Post, January 25, 2009
A growing number of workers in 2009 will pay more for health benefits -- and in some cases receive less coverage -- as their employers grapple with the financial fallout of rising medical expenses and diminished revenue and profits, recent surveys of human resource officials show. The Corporate Executive Board found in its survey that a quarter of officials from 350 large corporations said they had increased deductibles an average of 9 percent in 2008. But 30 percent of the employers said they expected to raise deductibles an average of 14 percent in 2009. Mercer, a global benefits consulting firm, surveyed nearly 2,000 large corporations in a representative poll and found that 44 percent planned to increase employee-paid portion of premiums in 2009, compared with 40 percent in 2008.
Privacy Issue Complicates Push to Link Medical Data
New York Times, January 17, 2009
President Barack Obama’s plan to link up doctors and hospitals with new information technology, as part of an ambitious job-creation program, is imperiled by a bitter, seemingly intractable dispute over how to protect the privacy of electronic medical records. Lawmakers, caught in a crossfire of lobbying by the health care industry and consumer groups, have been unable to agree on privacy safeguards that would allow patients to control the use of their medical records.
Health Care Spending in U.S. Grew at Lowest Rate in a Decade
Washington Post, January 6, 2009
Due to slower spending on prescription drugs, health-care spending in the United States grew at the lowest rate in a decade in 2007, a new federal report found. Yet despite the slowdown, most health-care costs continue to rise, with consumers' out-of-pocket expenses having increased 40 percent in the last 10 years, largely due to an aging population and chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, a second report found. Both reports are published in the January-February issue of Health Affairs.
Challenges of Providing Health Coverage for Children and Parents in a Recession: A 50 State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2009
Kaiser Family Foundation, January 2009
A commitment to providing health coverage for uninsured children has inspired nationwide efforts that began in earnest with enactment of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997. Like Medicaid, the chief source of health coverage for low-income families, SCHIP finances coverage through a partnership between the federal and state governments. State measures to expand eligibility and adopt streamlined enrollment procedures in Medicaid and SCHIP have strengthened both of these programs, and they have been instrumental in reducing the percentage of low-income uninsured children by one-third over the last decade. Notably, the number of low-income uninsured parents increased over the same period, since eligibility levels and resources for addressing their health coverage needs do not approach those related to children. While considerable progress has been made, nine million children in the United States remain uninsured, with nearly two-thirds of them eligible for Medicaid and SCHIP. So far, most states have managed to maintain existing eligibility levels and procedural improvements. For example, despite serious financial pressures, states that enacted earlier children’s coverage expansions, such as Iowa and New York, have reiterated their intentions to go forward. But, there are warning signs that this will become more and more difficult.
Reducing Costs While Improving the U.S. Health Care System: The Health Care Reform Pyramid
Deloitte, January 2009
This report contends that four areas of reform can result in a $530 billion reduction in spending over a ten year period: healthcare information technology; cooperative effectiveness/evidence-based medicine; coordination of care; and consumerism.
Health, United States, 2008
National Center for Health Statistics, 2009
Health, United States, 2008, is the 32nd annual report on the health status of the nation prepared by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the President and Congress. In a chartbook and 151 detailed tables, it provides an annual picture of the health of the entire Nation. Trends are presented on health status and health care utilization, resources, and expenditures. This year’s report includes a special feature on young adults, age 18 to 29 years. As young people in this age group reach legal adulthood, they make many life choices, including decisions about education, marriage, childbearing, and health behaviors such as tobacco and alcohol use, which will affect both their future economic and health status as well as affect the well-being of their families.
Left Behind: America's Uninsured Children
Families USA, November 2008
This report presents data generated by the U.S. Census Bureau from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a national survey of health coverage that is performed annually. Families USA contracted with the Census Bureau to provide detailed national and state-level data about health coverage for children between the ages of 0 and 18. According to the most recent estimates from the Census Bureau, 8.6 million children in the United States lacked health coverage in 2007.
2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers
Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, 2008
A new survey by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, part of Deloitte LLP, finds that many American consumers want more from their health care system than they’re currently getting – including greater online connection to health care providers and medical records, customized insurance coverage and wider access to emerging innovations such as retail clinics. At the same time, consumers express anxiety about future health care costs and increasingly search for alternative medicines and services that can save them money and offer convenience. But many also say they are willing to pay extra for wellness programs, and to support or consider tax increases to cover the uninsured.
Harnessing Openness to Transform American Healthcare
Committee for Economic Development, 2008
This report looks at how "openness" is being or might usefully be employed in the healthcare arena. This area, which now constitutes approximately 16-17 percent of GDP, has long frustrated policymakers, practitioners, and patients. Bringing greater openness to different parts of the healthcare production chain can lead to substantial benefits by stimulating innovation, lowering costs, reducing errors, and closing the gap between discovery and treatment delivery. The report focuses in part on biomedical research and the disclosure of research findings, the processes for evaluating drugs and devices, the emergence of electronic health records, the development and implementation of treatment regimes by caregivers and patients, and the interdependence of the global public health system.
Web Resources
News Sites & Portals
HealthLeaders
This portal links together the Internet sites for dozens of organizations serving health care providers. Key issues covered include privacy, disaster readiness, patient safety, and accreditation.
HospitalConnect
A monthly magazine covering issues and trends for healthcare executives and professionals.
BioMed Central Health Services Research
An Open Access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of health services research, including delivery of care, management of health services, assessment of health care needs, evaluation of different health markets and health services organizations, health economics and the impact of health policies and regulations.
Health Affairs
This bimonthly journal covers health care policy issues, such as managed care, reform, and spending. Free access to table of contents and article abstracts.
Associations & Organizations
American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)
ACHE is an international professional society of 30,000 healthcare executives who lead our nation's hospitals, healthcare systems, and other healthcare organizations.
Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC)
HLC, a coalition of chief executives from all disciplines within the health care system, is a forum for the leaders of our nation's health care system to jointly develop policies, plans, and programs.
Institute of Medicine (IOM)
The IOM was chartered in 1970 as a component of the National Academy of Sciences. The IOM's mission is to serve as adviser to the nation to improve health. The Institute provides unbiased, evidence-based, and authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy to policy-makers, professionals, leaders in every sector of society, and the public at large.
Alliance for Health Reform
A nonpartisan, nonprofit group that provides opinion leaders an unbiased source of information so they can understand the roots of the nation's health care problems and the trade-offs posed by competing proposals for change.
Center for Studying Health System Change
A nonpartisan policy research organization located in Washington, D.C. HSC designs and conducts studies focused on the U.S. health care system to inform the thinking and decisions of policy makers in government and private industry.
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
The Commission's goal is to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations. The Joint Commission's evaluation and accreditation services are provided for the following types of organizations: hospitals, health care networks, home care organizations, nursing homes, ambulatory care providers, and clinical laboratories.
URAC
An independent, nonprofit organization committed to promoting health care quality through accreditation, certification, and other quality improvement activities.
