Diabetes is a growing threat to the nation’s health that has serious and costly complications. This paper looks behind the $79.7 billion estimates for 2005 of medical and disability costs to the federal government cited in Mathematica’s main study. The estimates include $2.5 billion in...

This report presents findings from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Transforming Healthcare Quality Through IT program on aspects of sustainability, partnerships, and effective teamwork in grantees’ health IT implementation. Seventy percent of grantees sustained or increased...

Improving the ability of the long-term care system to meet the needs of an aging population is at the top of the nation’s policy agenda. This issue brief describes the demographic characteristics of vulnerable adults—those at significant risk of needing long-term care services in the...

Despite signs that low-income and uninsured people’s access to primary health care services has improved, serious gaps in care exist, especially for specialty physicians, mental health, and dental care according to findings from the Community Tracking Study. Key factors contributing to these...

Improving the ability of the long-term care system to meet the needs of an aging population is at the top of the nation’s policy agenda. This issue brief describes the demographic characteristics of vulnerable adults—those at significant risk of needing long-term care services in...

This report presents findings from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Transforming Healthcare Quality Through IT program on aspects of sustainability, partnerships, and effective teamwork in grantees’ health IT implementation. Seventy percent of grantees sustained or...

Health information technology has great potential for improving health care through Health Information Exchange (HIE), the exchange of health-related information electronically across providers, with strong privacy, confidentiality, and security protections. If safety-net providers are to keep...

Despite signs that low-income and uninsured people’s access to primary health care services has improved, serious gaps in care exist, especially for specialty physicians, mental health, and dental care according to findings from the Community Tracking Study. Key factors contributing to...

Although health information technology (IT) is at the center of efforts to improve the nation’s health care system by enhancing patient safety and reducing inefficiencies, little evidence exists to link IT to quality improvements and efficiency gains. This new issue brief reports on how...

The end of long-standing exclusive contracts between the dominant Greenville Hospital System and two major health plans, coupled with increased hospital expansion, suggests health care costs will continue to rise in Greenville.