Health care systems may be financed in various ways, including through government funding, taxation, out-of-pocket payments, private insurance, and donations or voluntary aid. RAND research explores the effects of corporate and government health care financing policies on such groups as patients, businesses, hospitals, and physician-providers.
Commentary
The health care “entitlement” we need to reform is the notion that America's health care system is entitled to an ever-growing share of America's wealth, writes Arthur Kellermann.
Commentary
Given the size of the annual “health care spend”—$2.7 trillion—summing up the savings associated with very minor cost-saving policy changes is likely to achieve significant aggregate savings, writes Jeffrey Wasserman.
Commentary
Unfortunately, nearly every actor in our health care delivery system—hospitals, physicians, other health care providers, insurance companies and the manufacturers of drugs and devices—is currently focused on maximizing revenue growth, write Arthur Kellermann and David Auerbach.
Journal Article
Use of and spending on complementary and alternative medicine have flattened out. Including providers of these services in new delivery systems such as accountable care organizations could help slow growth in national health care spending.
Journal Article
HIT's disappointing performance primarily stems from sluggish adoption of health IT systems, systems that are not interoperable or easy to use, and failure of providers and institutions to do their part by reengineering care processes.
Blog
The Affordable Care Act focuses primarily on extending coverage to uninsured Americans, but it is also intended to help curb cost growth. M. Susan Ridgely explains one of the key tools for doing that—the “accountable care organization,” an alternative delivery model intended to lower costs while also improving quality of care.
Journal Article
Policymakers in countries around the world are faced with rising health care costs and are debating ways to reform health care to reduce expenditures.
News Release
Comparative effectiveness research conducted over the past decade has had a limited impact on the way medical care is delivered, but many opportunities exist to help doctors and others in the medical system translate such research into better patient care.
Journal Article
Comparative effectiveness research conducted over the past decade has had a limited impact on the way medical care is delivered, but many opportunities exist to help doctors and others in the medical system translate such research into better patient care.
Journal Article
ACA-mandated payment reforms need to achieve more than a one-time cost saving.
Journal Article
Innovative payment reform initiatives occur in both the public and private sector, but the optimal role in such reforms of the public sector, specifically the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is up for debate
Blog
Medication non-adherence affects up to 40 percent of older adults, especially those with chronic conditions, and is associated with poor outcomes, more hospitalizations, and higher mortality. A new paradigm that clarifies joint provider–patient responsibility is needed.
Commentary
A problem with using surveys to predict behavior is that they measure employer sentiment toward the ACA today, rather than the economic decisions employers typically make when the time comes, writes Art Kellermann.
Periodical
If the individual mandate requiring all Americans to have health insurance were eliminated, it would sharply reduce the number of people gaining coverage and slightly increase the cost for those who do buy policies through the new insurance exchanges.
Blog
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate, one of the questions being debated is what effect the mandate would have on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. A factor to consider in this is the effect the ACA would have on small businesses, which employ the majority of America's private-sector workforce.
Journal Article
Enrollment is increasing in consumer-directed health insurance plans, which feature high deductibles and a personal health care savings account.
Journal Article
This study estimated how healthy people value insurance coverage of specialty drugs, defined as high-cost drugs that treat cancer and other serious health conditions like multiple sclerosis, by quantifying willingness to pay via a survey.
Journal Article
The financial burden of prescription drugs has declined recently for the nonelderly. The decrease is probably due to increased use of generic drugs. The financial burden remains high among those with public insurance and those with low incomes.
Journal Article
Rising health costs reduce employment-based private insurance availability and enrollment, and the financial protection provided by it, especially for middle-class families.
Journal Article
The CHIP expansions to children in higher income families were associated with limited uptake of public coverage.
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