Health Care Quality and Cost Improvement: State-based approaches can’t go it alone
It is difficult to find an issue that is more politically contentious than health care; particularly the policy changes and programs that are needed to assure that Americans have access to needed care. The liberal position tends to see health care as a right, and seeks a strong centralized public role in assuring that all Americans have access to the …
Read more >The Schizophrenia of Health Care Spending: Cost to Some and Revenue to Others
In early August, when the debt ceiling agreement was reached, many news reports noted the agreement did nothing to address core reasons for the debt, namely: Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Indeed, nearly every article written about the debt ceiling talked about the need to “deal with” (aka: cut) Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. But every time there is a …
Read more >The Changing World of Hospice Care
When I was in graduate school and early in my career, hospices were viewed as one of the most altruistic components of the health care system. With a philosophy of caring holistically for those at the end of life by controlling symptoms, supporting families, and providing a “good” death (preferably at home), hospices seemed to represent the vision of compassion …
Read more >Lansing State Journal: Can Michigan win the battle against obesity?
CHRT Director Marianne Udow-Phillips weighs in on the cost of obesity, explaining to the Lansing State Journal how reducing obesity—a preventable condition—could free money for other things.
Read more >Wacky BackQuack™ game is helping consumers and physicians determine the best course of treatment for acute back pain
A new back pain game created by a University of Michigan doctor aims to teach doctors and patients how to improve management of back pain by demonstrating what not to do. BackQuack™, a humorous but real attempt to educate, is the subject of serious research into consumerism and physician management of back pain. This online video game was developed by …
Read more >Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Health Care Reform in Washtenaw County
Health care policy happens at many levels, but health care delivery: just one. Policy is made at the federal, state and local levels—but delivery is at the local level: in organized systems of care or with individual or teams of practitioners working with patients and families. There must be a nexus between policy and practice in order for policy related to …
Read more >Cost Effective Care: How Do We Get The Waste Out of the System?
In the May 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Rashi Fein and Arnold Milstein tackled the question of why evidence-based care diffuses so slowly. The article is compelling because of its fundamental conclusion: institutionalized interest group pressure against change in health care and consumer misunderstanding of health care financing make it hard to envision how health care …
Read more >Crain's Detroit Business: Washtenaw health care collaborative plans for influx of insured patients in 2014
Report on the Washtenaw Health Initiative, a voluntary health care collaborative facilitated by CHRT.
Read more >The Ann Arbor News: U-M, St. Joe’s join new initiative to help Washtenaw brace for federal health care reform, fill coverage gaps
Report on the Washtenaw Health Initiative, a voluntary health care collaborative facilitated by CHRT.
Read more >ACOs: What Will They Really Be?
Sixty-five quality indicators? Retrospectively attributed patient populations? Risk after the fact? Significant management and financial investment required with uncertain payback? This may not sound like a strategy to win the hearts and minds of providers who are on the fence about whether or not to participate in CMS’ new approach to care: accountable care organizations (ACOs). So, what is going …
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