The debate within the U.S. government about reforming the health care system centers on ways to control rising costs and assure high-quality, affordable care. RAND Health and its health care reform initiative—RAND COMPARE (Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts)—provide objective research and analysis on topics that can inform the health care reform debate, including financing; increasing access, insurance coverage, and quality; decreasing costs; and promoting wellness and prevention.
With the complex process of implementing the ACA underway, RAND research is tracking the progress of implementation and assessing the potential consequences of choices facing federal and state governments, employers, families, and individuals.
In its second term, the Obama Administration can restrain further health care spending growth—without compromising quality—by employing four broad strategies: fostering efficient and accountable providers, engaging and empowering consumers, promoting population health, and facilitating high-value innovation.
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This document explores how hospital pay for performance (P4P) programs would affect health system performance along nine dimensions.
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This document explores how physician pay for performance (P4P) programs would affect health system performance along nine dimensions.
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The RAND Corporation's COMPARE initiative provides information and tools to help policymakers, the media, and others understand, design, and evaluate health care policies.
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This document explores how increased use of disease management programs would affect health system performance along nine dimensions.
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This document explores how changing medical liability laws to reduce the frequency and severity of claims would affect health system performance along nine dimensions.
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This document explores how increased cost participation by employees would affect health system performance along nine dimensions.
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This document explores how increased health information technology (HIT) adoption and connectivity would affect health system performance along nine dimensions.
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This document explores how expanding access to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) would affect health system performance along nine performance dimensions.
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This literature review identifies barriers to medication adherence and discusses key lessons from the literature that are relevant for the policy discussion on improving adherence.
News Release
A new RAND study outlines methods that might be used to test a novel payment system for medical care that would provide doctors, hospitals and other health providers a set fee for treating an ailment such as hip replacement surgery.
Research Brief
RAND Europe reviewed the problem of patient harm in Europe, assessed expected effects of three policy action areas to improve safety and modelled the potential health benefits that could be achieved by reducing numbers of harmful events.
Past Event
RAND's leading health policy experts assess recent congressional health care reform proposals in terms of affordability, access to care, and quality of care, incorporating lessons from a RAND analysis of Massachusetts' universal health care plan.
Commentary
What can you choose when life restricts you to the narrow width of a hospital bed and your view is one of life's final horizon, ask Steven M. Asch, Karl Lorenz, and Diane Meier.
Research Brief
In 2006, Massachusetts passed landmark legislation ensuring near-universal health insurance coverage to its residents, but rising costs threaten the initiative; this policy brief assesses 21 options for controlling health care spending in the state.
Commentary
RAND's latest analysis of options for reducing the number of uninsured shows that among all the options included in the House tri-committee bill, the Senate HELP bill, and the proposal released by Senator Max Baucus, the individual mandate would have the greatest impact, writes Elizabeth McGlynn.
Multimedia
President Obama and several Congressional leaders have recently expressed support for the idea of allowing citizens to buy into a public insurance program as part of any health reform legislation. The intensity of the ensuing debate has been fascinating given the lack of specifics that have been offered by either side.
News Release
Retail medical clinics located in pharmacies and other stores can provide care for routine illnesses at a lower cost and similar quality as offered in physician offices, urgent care centers or emergency departments.
Commentary
The ferocity of the national debate over health care continues to build, and rhetoric has all but replaced reality. People on all sides of the issue appear to want anything but the facts, write Elizabeth McGlynn and Jeffrey Wasserman.
News Release
With the nation facing a $9 trillion deficit over the next 10 years, according to government estimates, the future of health care reform depends upon a neglected but critical leg of the equation: cost. Some of the nation's leading experts in health and health care reform will provide insights into this issue when they converge in Nashville Aug. 29 for a nonpartisan public discussion.
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Provides an overview of COMPARE and shows the estimated effect of four policies: employer mandates, Medicaid and SCHIP expansions, individual mandates, and refundable tax credits.
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