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.
As health care reform expands the use of "report cards" to grade health care providers, greater attention to reporting methods may be needed to assure the quality of such efforts.
Under bundled payments, doctors, hospitals, and other providers share one fee for treating all aspects of a procedure such as a hip replacement or a chronic disease like diabetes. The approach should eliminate unnecessary care and improve quality, but putting it into practice is proving to be more difficult than anticipated.
A series of new reports by the RAND Corporation outlines the impact that national health care reform will have on individual states, estimating the increased costs and coverage that are expected in five diverse states once reform is fully implemented in 2016.
National health care reform will help 6 million California residents obtain health insurance and increase health care spending by state government by about 7 percent when it is fully implemented in 2016.
National health care reform will help 170,000 Connecticut residents obtain health insurance and decrease health care spending by state government by about 10 percent when it is fully implemented in 2016.
National health care reform will help 1.3 million Illinois residents obtain health insurance and increase health care spending by state government by about 10 percent when it is fully implemented in 2016.
National health care reform will help 125,000 Montana residents obtain health insurance and increase health care spending by state government by about 3 percent when it is fully implemented in 2016.
National health care reform will help 5 million Texas residents obtain health insurance and increase health care spending by state government by about 10 percent when it is fully implemented in 2016.
As the health care industry, employers, and government officials seek to control the growth of health spending, new efforts are needed to develop and refine quality-of-care and other performance measures that can assure changes will improve medical care and do not harm patients.
The recently enacted federal health care reform law provides health insurance coverage to the largest number of Americans while keeping federal costs as low as reasonably possible.
An independent evaluation of the health reform proposal made this week by President Obama shows that the plan would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 30 million by 2019—very similar to the results expected under separate legislation passed by the House and Senate.
As federal lawmakers prepare for a summit on health care, a new analysis shows that health reform legislation passed by the U.S. Senate would cut the number of uninsured Americans by about half and cost the federal government about $899 billion by 2019.
Health reform as set forth in legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in November would cut the number of uninsured Americans to 24 million by 2019 (a 56 percent decrease) and increase personal spending on health care by about 3.3 percent cumulatively between 2013 and 2019.
Slowing the growth in U.S. health care spending will most likely require adoption of an array of strategies as well as an improved approach to moving promising strategies into widespread use
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.
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.
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.
The RAND Corporation has released a report prepared for the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy of the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services outlining promising measures the state may pursue to help curb the cost of health care.
The RAND Corporation [has] launched an online tool to provide policymakers and interested parties with a unique way of understanding and evaluating the effects and unintended consequences of health care reform proposals certain to be introduced in the new 111th Congress and beyond.
Controlling prescription drug prices is one way to lower U.S. health costs, but it comes at a cost for future generations. While imposing European-style prescription drug price regulations in the United States would generate modest cost savings, it would impose a larger burden in the future by stifling medical innovation that can extend lives.
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