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Special Contributor | Building Medical Homes for Medicaid

By: Joanne Kenen

Care Oregon, the state’s main Medicaid managed care plan, had two choices a few years ago, after many commercial partners in the Oregon Health Plan decided to get out of the money-draining business. It could go broke. Or it could change its world. It opted for the latter. Today, the Portland-based nonprofit CareOregon is a bit savvier about the business end of its mission. And it’s still trying to change its world. I started hearing about CareOregon here and there over the last year, and I heard several of its leaders—including CEO Dave ...

Special Contributor | Learning from Health Care Reform Abroad — More Lessons from the British National Health Service

By: Zack Cooper

Unlike in the U.S., where it’s exceedingly difficult to pass health care legislation, sweeping health care reforms are commonplace in Britain. Because of their parliamentary, winner-takes-all political system, when each new government arrives in power, they almost always introduce broad changes to the National Health Service. The latest coalition government has not been an exception to this trend. On May 11, David Cameron became prime minister of Britain. Nearly two months later, Andrew Lansley, his newly appointed health secretary, released proposals for sweeping changes to the NHS. The policy-package outlined by ...

Special Contributor | The Uncertain Impact of Health Reform on Hospitals

By: Jennifer Ecklund-Johnson

Even before President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 5390) into law in March, there was much consternation among health care professionals who believed the results from health reform would negatively affect their bottom line. Hospitals and safety-net health care providers, in particular, are expecting a greater use of health care services by individuals who become newly insured. At the same time, they are facing the prospect that changes to Medicare and Medicaid might result in lower reimbursements for treating those same millions of newly ...

Special Contributor | Living Large—Are Our Communities Making Us Fat?

By: Serena Vinter

Late last month, my organization, Trust for America’s Health, issued our seventh annual report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010, which finds adult obesity rates increased in 28 states in the past year and declined only in the District of Columbia. More than two-thirds of states (38) have adult obesity rates above 25 percent. In 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. Nationally, two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children and teens are currently obese or overweight. These discouraging figures come ...

“Viewpoints: Health Economics” | Health Reform and the Role of Community Partnerships in Promoting Quality and Value

By: Dennis Scanlon

Now that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been signed into law, the key question is whether it will lead to improved quality and better value in health care. While many people feel that this is an issue best left to the federal and state governments, many analysts feel that the reforms needed to improve quality and value cannot be done by governments alone but that real, lasting reform needs to occur at the community level. It is unknown, however, whether communities have the capacity for such complex reform. ...

“Viewpoints: Health Economics” | Was Health Reform A Game Changer for the Long-Term Care Industry?

By: Rachel Lee

A little-known provision of the health reform law has the potential to transform long-term care services and delivery. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act establishes the nation’s first voluntary insurance program to purchase long-term care services and supports from the community. Its inclusion is recognition that our current practices in the payment and provision of care will not be sufficient for the demographic demands of people with disabilities or people over the age of 65, and the economic environment that our country faces over the coming decades. It ...