The Health Workforce Dream Team: Who Will Provide the Care? December 2, 2010 Event Many providers and policymakers envision team-based care as an important way to improve quality and maximize resources. The “dream team” includes nurses and many other non-physician providers. But how will we ensure enough health care workers for a growing, aging population with ever-increasing chronic care needs? This December 2 briefing,…
Wisconsin’s BadgerCare Plus Program: Moving Forward on Health Reform Amid a Recession June 16, 2010 Fact Sheet This fact sheet provides a brief overview of Wisconsin’s BadgerCare Plus Program, a three-year-old initiative that merged the state’s three distinct Medicaid programs for children, parents and pregnant women into a single comprehensive health coverage program. It also expanded eligibility to provide near-universal coverage for children and greater coverage for…
Financial Alignment Models for Dual Eligibles: An Update November 1, 2011 Issue Brief The nearly nine million dual eligibles who receive both Medicare and Medicaid benefits are a high cost, high need population, accounting for a disproportionate share of expenditures relative to their enrollment in both programs. In April 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the award of design…
Rural Health: Laying the Foundation for Health Reform October 2, 2009 Event The Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation co-sponsored this briefing to have a panel of experts answer questions about how some aspects of pending health reform proposals may have a substantial impact on rural care. What provisions in the various reform proposals affect rural health care?…
Investing in Health IT: What the U.S. and Other Countries Are Learning October 29, 2010 Event Recent legislation, including the stimulus package and the new health reform law, invests substantial funds in health information technology which can help prevent medical errors and improve the quality and value of care. However, questions have been raised about the cost of implementation and personal privacy considerations. This briefing addressed…
Innovations in Primary Care: What’s in the ACA? December 13, 2010 Event The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims to move the health care system away from an episodic, fee-for-service approach and towards a coordinated, preventive model of care delivery. Exactly how does the law encourage innovations in primary care? What roles will states and purchasers of care play in this…
Proposed Models to Integrate Medicare and Medicaid Benefits for Dual Eligibles: A Look at the 15 State Design Contracts Funded By CMS August 12, 2011 Issue Brief This brief summarizes 15 states’ preliminary proposals to better coordinate care for people who are in both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The design contracts, funded by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), are an outgrowth of new efforts under the health reform law to develop service…
Quality Care for Less Money: Can Regional Successes Go National? February 15, 2012 Event On February 15, the Kaiser Family Foundation hosted an event featuring a PBS documentary with former Washington Post correspondent T.R. Reid – U.S. Health Care: The Good News – which explores efforts to provide low-cost, quality health care in the U.S. The film looks at variations in health spending across…
Quick Take: Medicaid: 3 Key Issues to Watch in 2013 February 22, 2013 Fact Sheet 2013 will be a historic year for Medicaid with the implementation of major provisions to expand coverage and streamline enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) less than a year away, a surge in activity around care delivery reforms that seek to improve care and potentially reduce costs, and the…
Interactive Tool Provides an Overview of Delivery System and Payment Reform Efforts in Medicaid Programs June 22, 2015 News Release A new interactive tool from the Kaiser Family Foundation provides an overview of the increasing number of delivery system and payment reform efforts that are underway as alternatives to traditional fee-for-service arrangements in state Medicaid programs across the country. Users can scroll over the interactive map and see highlights of…