Variations in inpatient mortality among hospitals in different system types, 1995 to 2000.

Background: Relatively few studies focused on the impact of system formation and hospital merger on quality, and these studies reported typically little or no quality effect.

Objective: To study associations among 5 main types of health systems--centralized, centralized physician/insurance, moderately centralized, decentralized, and independent--and inpatient mortality from acute myocardial infarction (AMI), congestive heart failure, stroke, and pneumonia.

Data And Methods: Panel data (1995-2000) were assembled from 11 states and multiple sources: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality State Inpatient Database, American Hospital Association Annual Surveys, Area Resource File, HMO InterStudy, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Early experiences with consumer engagement initiatives to improve chronic care.

Engaging consumers to be more active participants in their health and health care is an appealing strategy for reforming the U.S. health care system, but little is known about how to mount and sustain communitywide consumer engagement initiatives.

Pursuing cost containment in a pluralistic payer environment: from the aftermath of Clinton's failure at health care reform to the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

Following a decade in which Medicare operated as the leading 'change agent' within the US health care system, the private sector rose to the fore in the mid 1990s. The failure of President Clinton's attempt at comprehensive, public sector-led reform left managed care as the solution for cost control. And for a period it worked, largely because managed care organizations were able to both squeeze payments to selective networks of medical providers and significantly reduce inpatient hospital stays.

Public health workforce shortages imperil nation's health.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, interest in the state of America's public health system spiked, especially related to emergency preparedness. Significant new federal funding flowed to state and local agencies to bolster public health activities. But the spotlight on shoring up the nation's public health system has faded, and the public appears unaware of escalating threats to such basic services as disease surveillance.

Safety net hospital emergency departments: creating safety valves for non-urgent care.

Hospital emergency departments (EDs) are caring for more patients, including those with non-urgent needs that could be treated in alternative, more cost-effective settings, such as a clinic or physician's office. According to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's 2007 site visits to 12 nationally representative metropolitan communities, many emergency departments at safety net hospitals--the public and not-for-profit hospitals that serve large proportions of low-income, uninsured and Medicaid patients--are attempting to meet patients' non-urgent needs more efficiently. Safety net EDs are working to redirect non-urgent patients to their hospitals' outpatient clinics or to community health centers and clinics, with varied results.

Public employees' health benefits survive major threats, so far.

Previous studies of public employees' health benefits indicate that they have been spared many of the changes evident in the private sector. But the recession and plunging state revenues in the early 2000s presented growing challenges to trying to preserve these benefits. Findings from the Round Five site visits of the Community Tracking Study (2005) reveal that benefits have still witnessed surprisingly few major modifications.

Stretching the safety net to serve undocumented immigrants: community responses to health needs.

A small but increasing proportion of immigrants to the United States is undocumented. Because most undocumented immigrants lack health insurance, they primarily rely on safety net providers for care. Communities with more developed safety nets and historically large numbers of immigrants appear more adept at caring for both legal and undocumented immigrants, according to Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2005 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities.

Medicare and Medicaid managed care: a tale of two trajectories.

Two decades of efforts to promote managed care models in Medicare and Medicaid have resulted in vastly different experiences as measured by enrollment, plan participation, and ability to achieve the goals of public policy-makers. The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 introduced a major transformation to engage and retain private health plans. It is useful for plan administrators to consider why the trajectories for the programs have been so divergent and to assess prospects for success in the Medicare Advantage initiative.

A widening rift in access and quality: growing evidence of economic disparities.

Data from the Community Tracking Study provide a valuable perspective from which to observe how economic disparities--largely a function of different sources of coverage--influence access to medical care in the United States. Many recent investments and initiatives are focused on affluent communities and are accessible mainly to people with employer-based or Medicare coverage. For people with Medicaid or no coverage at all, access to basic care is worsening, as a result of stalled coverage expansions and service cutbacks.

Balancing margin and mission: hospitals alter billing and collection practices for uninsured patients.

A barrage of publicity about aggressive hospital billing and collection practices and a spate of lawsuits alleging hospitals overcharged uninsured patients have put hospitals in a harsh national spotlight. In the wake of a campaign by hospital associations to encourage hospitals to create formal policies for billing uninsured patients, many hospitals have modified billing and collection practices for low-income, uninsured patients, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2005 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities. Almost all of the hospitals interviewed that had adopted more generous charity care policies indicated expenses previously classified as bad debt have shifted to charity care write-offs.

Geography and destiny: local-market perspectives on developing Medicare Advantage regional plans.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 established regional preferred provider organizations (PPOs) as a new private-plan option for beneficiaries in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program, starting in 2006. Developing network-based Medicare products uniformly priced across statewide or multistate regions presents unprecedented challenges and opportunities for health insurers. We held discussions with local health plan and hospital informants in six of the twelve Community Tracking Study (CTS) communities to obtain their perspectives on key considerations in evaluating whether they can and will offer regional PPO products under the MA program.

Financial performance indicators for health plans in Medicaid managed care.

This study is a descriptive analysis of the financial performance of licensed managed care plans that participate in Medicaid by ownership, provider-sponsorship, and the level of Medicaid focus and Medicaid enrollment. Using 2001 Interstudy data, health plan financial data for the Medicaid product line are analyzed on a national level for individual plans. Using SEC 10-K financial filings, company level analysis of two publicly traded, Medicaid-focused, managed care plans are analyzed as well.

Sole hospital commitment to health promotion and disease prevention (HPDP) services: does ownership matter?

Hospitals have been increasingly involved in health promotion and disease prevention (HPDP) in the last two decades. Concurrent with this trend, environmental changes and market pressures have resulted in more hospital consolidations and conversions from not-for-profit (NFP) to for-profit (FP) organizations. The emergence of a large number of sole community hospitals has attracted the attention of policy-makers and community stakeholders because sole community hospitals have more power in the local market and may discontinue unprofitable services to pursue profit maximization.

Paying for quality: health plans try carrots instead of sticks.

Growing national attention to improving quality and patient safety is spurring development of quality-based financial incentives for physicians and hospitals. Health plans in particular are driving these pay-for-performance initiatives, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2002-03 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities. For now, there is little standardization across plans in how quality improvement is measured, and incentive payments typically are modest in comparison with providers' total revenue.

Preferred provider organizations and Medicare: is there an advantage?

A key component of the new Medicare reform law is an overhaul of Medicare managed care, including a strong emphasis on recruiting private plans--especially preferred provider organizations (PPOs)--to participate in the new Medicare Advantage program. Citing the popularity of PPOs for privately insured Americans, proponents have touted PPOs as critical to injecting more and better competition into Medicare. This study, based on findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) site visits to 12 nationally representative communities, explores the reasons for the strong growth in commercial PPO enrollment and examines whether PPOs--as currently structured--can add value to Medicare.

Medicaid managed care: the last bastion of the HMO?

States rely on health maintenance organizations (HMOs) for their Medicaid beneficiaries because they offer guaranteed access to comprehensive benefits at a predictable cost. This is true despite movement away from HMOs, or at least the more restrictive variants, in the private sector. Plans that focus on Medicaid are becoming more central to states' programs as commercial plans exit.

The puzzling popularity of the PPO.

Surging growth in preferred provider organization (PPO) participation has been fueled by migration away from the undesirable features of health maintenance organizations (HMOs). While employers, consumers, and providers seem to know what it is they do not want from HMOs, the advantages offered by PPO design are not so clear. This is attributable in part to difficulties in determining what a PPO arrangement actually is.

Are market forces strong enough to deliver efficient health care systems? Confidence is waning.

Our paper draws lessons for policymakers from twelve communities as we identify the power and limits of general market-based strategies for improving the efficiency of health systems. The vision of market forces driving our system toward efficiency attracted politicians, policy analysts, and practitioners in the 1990s. Today some policy advocates profess even more faith in unfettered market forces.

Getting along or going along? Health plan-provider contract showdowns subside.

Although contract negotiations between health plans and providers have remained tense during the past two years, overt impasses have declined, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2002-03 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities. The balance of power stabilized during the period, with providers, particularly hospitals, solidifying their dominant negotiating positions and securing concessions from plans in the form of significant payment rate increases and more favorable contract terms. Many plans have recognized and accepted their weaker position relative to providers, suggesting the recent lull indicates plans have found it in their interests to accommodate provider demands for higher payments, rather than resist them and possibly trigger a contract showdown.

Medicare contracting risk/Medicare risk contracting: a life-cycle view from twelve markets.

Objective: To examine the evolution of the Medicare HMO program from 1996 to 2001 in 12 nationally representative urban markets by exploring how the separate and confluent influences of government policy initiatives and health plans' strategic aims and operational experience affected the availability of HMOs to Medicare beneficiaries.

Data Source: Qualitative data gathered from 12 nationally representative urban communities with more than 200,000 residents each, in tandem with quantitative information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other sources.

Study Design: Detailed interview protocols, developed as part of the multiyear, multimethod Community Tracking Study of the Center for Studying Health System Change, were used to conduct three rounds of interviews (1996, 1998, and 2000-2001) with health plans and providers in 12 nationally representative urban communities.

An empty toolbox? Changes in health plans' approaches for managing costs and care.

Objective: To examine how health plans have changed their approaches for managing costs and utilization in the wake of the recent backlash against managed care.

Data Sources/study Setting: Semistructured interviews with health plan executives, employers, providers, and other health care decision makers in 12 metropolitan areas that were randomly selected to be nationally representative of communities with more than 200,000 residents. Longitudinal data were collected as part of the Community Tracking Study during three rounds of site visits in 1996-1997, 1998-1999, and 2000-2001.

Health plan responses to managed care regulation.

Little effort has been made to understand operational responses of health plans to the cascade of regulation imposed on them in the past decade. Using data from the Community Tracking Study, we cast some light on this area and illustrate how regulatory initiatives have produced both intended and unintended consequences. The findings both confirm speculation about regulatory effects and reveal some surprising and troubling developments.

Medicaid confronts a changing managed care marketplace.

After two decades of concerted efforts, more than one-half of all Medicaid beneficiaries are now enrolled in managed care arrangements. Most States appear strongly committed to continued reliance on managed care, but the contemporary managed care marketplace is undergoing a number of significant changes. We describe how several of these developments are being revealed in commercial managed care and discuss implications for Medicaid purchasers and beneficiaries.