Elders who are frail because of disability, multiple chronic conditions, and other factors account for a growing share of the population, yet they are often poorly served by a health care system that is focused on acute care episodes. This report for the California HealthCare Foundation examines...

More than 23 million Americans have limited English proficiency, which complicates their ability to obtain quality health care. Language barriers in the health care setting can lead to miscommunications and cause medical errors, delay or denial of services, issues with medication management, and...

The role of private health plans in Medicare expanded substantially in 2004 under the Medicare Modernization Act, which builds on plan experience under Medicare+Choice, created in 1997 to offer more managed care choices for beneficiaries and recently renamed Medicare Advantage. Although sponsors...

Describes the different kinds of supplemental coverage available, including employer-based coverage, Medicaid, and the individual private Medigap and Medicare HMO markets. Also examines whom these plans attract, and what this means for beneficiary education and the design of Medicare reform.

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 summary provides an overview of the Medicare Advantage (MA) marketplace and highlights key changes between 2009 and 2010. On average, Medicare beneficiaries will be able to choose from more than 30 MA plans in 2010—in addition to the traditional Medicare program. Beneficiaries who...

This paper describes a multi-method approach for evaluating 10 small interventions that participated in the Medicaid Value Program, which sought to improve quality of care for Medicaid beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions. The approach relied on quantitative and qualitative methods to...

The United States health care system performs poorly on many key objectives, and enhancing the system is at the top of the policy agenda. Improving the payment methods used to compensate and reward physicians could go a long way toward creating a more high-performing health care system. This...