Findings suggest that many hospitals' negotiating leverage significantly increased after years of decline. Today, many hospitals are viewed as having the greatest leverage in local markets. Changes in three areas—the policy and purchasing context, managed care plan market, and hospital...

Quality improvement collaboratives have become a common strategy for improving health care. This paper uses social network analysis to study the relationships among organizations participating in a large scale public–private collaboration among major health plans to reduce racial and...

This brief examines accountable care organizations—groupings of diverse health care providers that care for a group of people and aim to create a cohesive framework, encourage accountability, and create incentives and rewards to providers that focus on the overall scope of patient care....

This study examined providers' efforts to improve care delivery, similar to those likely to be encouraged under ACOs. Common challenges for affiliated health care organizations’ efforts to improve care are establishing a business case for change and implementing changes with minimal disruption...

This brief, developed by staff at Mathematica and the Kaiser Family Foundation, looks at efforts by a number of states to set up accountable care organizations (ACOs) within their Medicaid programs. The analysis reveals that many initiatives are in a very early stage of development. Medicaid's...

This brief describes the importance of different care coordination activities in improving patient outcomes. It also explores ways that the patient-centered medical home and accountable care organizations can coordinate care.