Doing Better by Doing Less: Approaches to Tackle Overuse of Services
January 16, 2013 | Issue Brief
The analysis focuses in on medically inappropriate and unnecessary services that drive up spending without making making patients better.
The Urban Institute produces a series of quick-strike issue briefs on health care coverage and quality issues in the United States. Browse the series below.
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How Will Reform Affect Health Care Costs?
Issue Brief
Series of briefs outlines cost controls in health reform law.
Protecting High-Risk, High-Cost Patients
June 1, 2012 | Issue Brief
There is little question that the ACA will improve the nongroup and small group insurance markets for everyone in them, including the high-risk population. Yet insurance market reforms, guided by requirements for EHBs, AVs, and other tools provided by the ACA, are and will remain a work in progress.
Churning Under the ACA and State Policy Options for Mitigation
June 1, 2012 | Issue Brief
To lessen the damage done by churning, it will be important for states to provide consumers with intensive assistance to help them navigate through the involuntary coverage transitions.
The Value of Clinical Practice Guidelines as Malpractice "Safe Harbors"
April 1, 2012 | Issue Brief
This paper from the Urban Institute discusses the promise of clinical practice guidelines as medical liability "safe harbors." The paper examines how guidelines can protect providers, how they would prevent defensive medicine, and challenges and hurdles in designing and applying such guidelines.
Will the Affordable Care Act Move Patient-Centeredness to Center Stage?
March 1, 2012 | Issue Brief
This paper from the Urban Institute on behalf of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, discusses how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) places new emphasis on measuring patients' experiences of care and using that information to improve care.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
February 1, 2012 | Issue Brief
This summary paper provides a status report on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Congress established the Innovation Center in the ACA primarily to test new payment and delivery models.
Eliminating the Individual Mandate
January 1, 2012 | Issue Brief
This issue brief is funded by RWJF as part of its Quick Strike Series and presents an analysis of the controversial individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act.
State Progress Toward Health Reform Implementation
January 1, 2012 | Issue Brief
This issue brief examines whether there is a correlation between the progress that states have made toward establishing the health insurance exchanges called for under ACA, and the expected benefits for state residents.
Accountable Care Organizations in Medicare and the Private Sector
November 2, 2011 | Issue Brief
This policy paper examines the latest developments in accountable care organizations (ACOs), including a look at the final regulations on ACOs issued in October 2011 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).