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CHRT Blog

Primary Contact: Main Office Line: (734) 998-7555 or CHRT-info@umich.edu

What are “essential benefits”?

The Affordable Care Act uses a number of terms that could never have been field tested by a marketing team. One that is very confusing to most people is the term “essential benefits” – a concept key to the way health insurance exchanges will work and the health benefits people will actually get under health reform. Health insurance exchanges will …

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Bipartisan Opportunities in Health Care: the Push for Transparency

Despite the “Strum und Drang” over health care reform in Congress these days, there is actually some interesting bipartisan activity occurring. While the stridency on health care reform often gets the most notice, the bipartisan activity offers some hope that challenging problems can move forward in a constructive way. Not surprisingly, this activity is taking place principally in the Senate …

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The State and Federal Dance on Health Reform

The Affordable Care Act is a complicated law, in part because it builds off the current health care system to achieve some far reaching goals: significantly expanded access to care and control over the rate of cost increase. Though some describe the Act as a federal takeover of health care, in fact, much of the law is to be carried …

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Antibiotics: More Progress to Be Made

In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) launched a major initiative to reduce the overuse of antibiotics. While many people think that taking an antibiotic for viral infections is either beneficial or benign, the CDC knew that the overuse of antibiotics was leading to a significant increase in infections that were drug resistant. National efforts like the CDC’s, along …

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Buyer Beware

Many people search websites for information about their health concerns. But, there are many health oriented websites to choose from and consumers don’t always have good ways to sort out the information they are reading. For example, the New York Times magazine ran a small but significant story on the difference between WebMD and the MayoClinic websites. The Times reported …

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IMRT and Patient Safety: The Way Forward

One year ago, the New York Times reported on a series of serious medical errors that had occurred during the administration of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, or IMRT. IMRT is a relatively new technology that uses sophisticated equipment to deliver high doses of radiation to very specific areas of the body, while sparing normal tissue. When administered correctly, IMRT can …

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Where is it all headed? Politics and Opinions About the Affordable Care Act

Since the January 31 decision by the Florida court that struck down the entire Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional, there has been endless speculation about what the court ruling means and what will happen next. Some Attorneys General who were party to the lawsuit have asked for an expedited decision by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the law; …

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Research to Action

In my role at CHRT, I work daily with the best research minds in the country and I work with communities and “grass roots” groups. I often describe what I do as bridging two worlds and helping to translate and balance between them. The work engages solid research design but in ways that are practical and able to be translated …

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Health Care Reform: Values and Beliefs vs Economics

Ever since Bill Clinton took a turn at health care reform, the issue has often been discussed as an economic one. Bill Clinton first framed the health reform issue in 1992 before he took office. He had famously kept as a center piece of his campaign the idea that “it’s the economy, stupid” and health care became part of that …

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Passions behind Health Care Reform – Illuminated by Tragedy

The terrible shootings in Arizona have been described, mourned and their causes much discussed.  There has been a particular debate about whether these crimes could possibly have been encouraged by some of the more heated political discourse that has occurred in this country over the past year or so. While it seems likely that when all is said and done, …

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