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.

The Individual Mandate in Perspective

March 1, 2012 | Issue Brief

The “individual mandate”—the requirement that individuals either have health insurance coverage or pay a fine—is both the best known and the least popular component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). If the ACA were in effect today, 94 percent of the ...

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.