Helping States enhance health care quality through technical assistance.

For the money spent on health care in the United States, far better quality of care should be expected. The Commonwealth Fund and AcademyHealth have created the State Quality Improvement Institute to assist states in implementing sustainable quality improvement strategies. Lessons have emerged about the role of states in advancing fundamental and systemic changes in the way care is delivered, as well as how providers are organized and compensated.

Health services research tools for public health professionals.

Although the fields of public health and health services research have much in common, public health practitioners--in their daily encounters with practical, frontline challenges--may not be aware of the quantity and the quality of information generated by health services research that is directly related to public health activities. We describe a number of health services research resources that public health practitioners may find useful, including an overview of these resources and several in-depth examples.

Medicare payment policy: does cost shifting matter?

We examine cost shifting within the context of Medicare payment policy. We briefly review economic theory and available data and discuss the importance of cost shifting for policy. Then we present four central findings on cost shifting based on the views of former high-level policymakers.