What Now? Health Care Reform after the Midterms
During the campaign, there was a great deal of talk about “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act if the Republicans won in Congress. Well, the Republicans won the House and made significant gains in the Senate. So, what now? Is a repeal of health care reform a likely outcome in the near future? There is very little that is …
Read more >The Safety Net and Health Care Reform
On October 29, CHRT sponsored a symposium to look at issues surrounding the safety net and the future of health care after the Affordable Care Act takes effect. While there are some who believe that getting to (or close to) universal coverage would mean the end of the safety net, our panelists came to the opposite conclusion. That is, we …
Read more >Choices Ahead
The run up to the midterm elections says a lot about American ambivalence about reforming the health care system. The rhetoric about health reform – and the public’s reaction to that rhetoric – underlines why it has been so difficult to reform the health care system for the past 100 years– and, why it still might fail. In general, whenever …
Read more >Can ACOs Create a High Performing Healthcare System in America?
The idea of the “Accountable Care Organization” (ACO) appears to have taken hold well in advance of a clear understanding of what these organizations might be or how they will fit into the overall health care system. At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, we’ve been using the term “Organized Systems of Care” (OSC) since 2005, when we began transforming …
Read more >The Hidden Story Behind the Development of Evidence Based Guidelines or, Why It is So Hard to Reduce Health Care Spending Trends
Almost a year ago now, new guidelines on mammography screening were released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The new guidelines updated 2002 recommendations, and based on recent research recommended against routine screening of women ages 40-49. Instead of routine screening, the USPSTF concluded that the decision about screening women 40-49 should be left up to individual women and …
Read more >CHRT Report Shows Patterns of Health Practice Vary Across Michigan
A report released today by the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT) on the use of health care services in Michigan shows a high degree of variation in the use of certain tests and procedures—including back surgery, Cesarean section, hysterectomy, and angioplasty—among different regions throughout the state. The “Thumb”/Saginaw area had among the highest use rates for all procedures …
Read more >Michigan Radio: Report finds geographic differences in health care practices
Report on CHRT’s September 2010 “CHRTBook: Health Care Variation in Michigan.”
Read more >Detroit Free Press: Docs’ practices are questioned: Test, treatment frequency raises concerns
Report on CHRT’s September 2010 “CHRTBook: Health Care Variation in Michigan.” Must pay fee to view full story.
Read more >Michigan Business Review: Report shows how medical care varies across the state
Report on CHRT’s September 2010 “CHRTBook: Health Care Variation in Michigan.”
Read more >A Michigan Look at Variation in Medical Care: Where you live often determines what you get
This week our Center is releasing a report on geographic variation in health care use in Michigan. Geographic variation in the use of health care services has been well described in the literature for more than 20 years now. Jack Wennberg pioneered this kind of systematic analysis at Dartmouth and has been reporting this data on an ongoing basis looking …
Read more >