Public Health
Update: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care
Posted on December 1, 2011
This post serves as an Implementation Update to our previous Implementation Brief on racial and ethnic disparities, originally posted April 15, 2010. The Update reflects changes made by HHS in their recently-released health survey standards.
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U.S. trumps other countries in health care spending again
Posted on November 23, 2011
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development recently released the 6th annual Health at a Glance report. The OECD paper shows that the United States is number one in health spending even though Americans have a lower rate of doctor visits and hospitalizations than most of the other 34 member countries. The United States spent approximately $7,960 per person on health care in 2009. This rate was about 2.5 times the average per capita health care cost in the other countries studied.
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RWJF releases summary documenting that public health interventions lead to health care cost savings
Posted on November 16, 2011
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a 10-year, $15 billion commitment to support programs, medical screenings, and research related to public health and prevention. This national commitment to investment in preventing disease before it occurs is in line with evidence from a variety of recent reports and studies indicating that strategic investments in proven, community-based prevention programs could result in significant U.S. health care cost savings and overall economic cost savings. The Robert Wood Johnson Brief, “Return Investments in Public Health: A Summary of Groundbreaking Research Studies,” summarizes the findings and recommendations from four major studies released between 2008 and 2011.
Commonwealth Fund publishes National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011
Posted on October 18, 2011
The Commonwealth Fund debuted the “National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011″ in a press briefing at the Kaiser Family Foundation on October 18, 2011. Cathy Schoen, the Senior Vice President for Research and Evaluation at Commonwealth, summarized the report, which updates a series of comprehensive assessments of U.S. population health and health care quality, access, efficiency, and equity. The report notes substantial improvement on several care quality indicators. However, the U.S. fell short on key measures as well. Across 42 performance indicators, the U.S. achieved a total score of 64 out of a possible 100, when comparing national rates with domestic and international benchmarks. Costs rose sharply, access to care declined, health system efficiency remained low, health disparities persisted, and heath outcomes also fell below target. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) targets many of the important gaps identified by the Commonwealth Scorecard.
HHS releases review of Healthy People 2010
Posted on October 7, 2011
“Healthy People 2010 Final Review,” released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a progress assessment of the nation’s health goals over the last decade. At a Health Affairs briefing in Washington D.C. just before the release of the Final Review, HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Health, Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, said that the two principal health goals of the decade were 1) to increase the lifespan and quality of life of Americans, and 2) to reduce health disparities. Secretary Koh reported that the Final Review data show that the first measure, but unfortunately not the second, was achieved. While much progress has been made with regard to 71% of the program’s 2010 targets, the Healthy People Final Review does highlight several critical problem areas, including not only health disparities, but also the obesity rate in America.
For the full “Health People 2010 Final Review,” please refer to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics website.
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Commonwealth’s report suggests policy framework to close health care divide for vulnerable populations
Posted on October 7, 2011
The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System’s report “Ensuring Equity: A Post-Reform Framework to Achieve High Performance Health Care for Vulnerable Populations” examines the continuing problems facing vulnerable populations and offers a policy framework for moving forward. The framework features three overarching strategies to close the health care divide: 1) ensure that insurance coverage affords adequate health care access and financial protection; 2) strengthen the care delivery systems serving vulnerable populations; and 3) coordinate health care delivery with other community resources, including public health services.
Sebelius announces awards for future health centers
Posted on September 15, 2011
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the awarding of $10 million to 129 entities around the country that intend on becoming community health centers. The money was made available by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and will be used to develop new health centers, which provide access to care for many medically under-served Americans.
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Public and Allied Health Workforce
Posted on September 8, 2011
Strengthening and modernizing the health care workforce was a major goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The law contains dozens of provisions related to health care workforce issues, including national workforce policy development (what the law refers to as workforce “innovations”), increasing the supply of primary care physicians and nurses, strengthening the dental health workforce, education and training of the workforce, and expanding teaching health centers. This Implementation Brief focuses on the provisions of the ACA dealing with the education, training, and support of public health and allied health care workers; previous Briefs have focused on the other topics.
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IRS Notice and Request for Comments Regarding the Community Health Needs Assessment Requirements for Tax-Exempt Hospitals
Posted on August 23, 2011
On July 7, 2011, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a Notice and Request for Comments on a proposed policy regarding the Affordable Care Act’s new requirements related to tax exempt hospitals’ community health needs assessment (CHNA) obligations. Section 9007 of the Act added new Section 501(r) to the Internal Revenue Code, which delineates a series of statutory requirements, outlined in a previous implementation brief, applicable to nonprofit hospitals that seek tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3). The purpose of the Treasury/IRS Notice is to both describe the agencies’ approach to implementing hospital organizations’ CHNA obligations and to invite comments regarding their proposals. The CHNA requirements are effective for taxable years beginning after March 23, 2012. However, the Notice specifies that hospitals currently engaged in conducting CHNA-related activities — including development and wide publication of a needs assessment and adoption of an implementation strategy — can rely on the policies contained in the Notice as they move forward.
Families USA analyzes how the Basic Health Program can work for low-income consumers
Posted on July 29, 2011
Families USA’s paper, “The Basic Health Option: Will It Work for Low-Income Consumers in Your State?” reviews the concept of the Basic Health Program (BHP), discusses some potential program pitfalls, and raises key issues that can influence the direction that a BHP might take in states with varying financial and political constraints. Some key challenges highlighted in the paper of the BHP include the provision of seamless coverage and provider payment rates.
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