- ACA Implementation & State Health Reform
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- Federal/State Issues
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- Population and Public Health
- Providers and Services
- Acute Care
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- Quality, Cost, and Health System Performance
- ACOs
- Adverse Event Reporting
- Care Transitions
- Comparative Effectiveness
- Cost Sharing
- Delivery System Reform
- Fraud and Abuse
- Health Care Workforce
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- Managed Care
- Medical Homes & Health Homes
- Medical Malpractice
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- Payment Reform
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- Specific Populations
- Adolescents
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- Children
- Children with Special Health Care Needs
- Dual Eligibles
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Using Report Cards to Measure Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: State Experience
State agencies identify, document, and act on data related to racial and ethnic health and health care disparities in various ways. One type of document states produce is a “report card,” or a publication that uses data from race/ethnicity-specific measures to assign letter grades that rate the state's performance. This issue brief, prepared by NASHP for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), focuses on New Mexico’s experience using report cards to measure racial and ethnic health disparities.
Click to download the report (PDF).
September 2011 -
State Documentation of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities to Inform Strategic Action
This report, prepared by NASHP for the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, summarizes how leading states analyze state and federal race/ethnicity data in strategic plans and reports aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care. It features Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Utah, but also notes activity in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. Lessons from leading states can provide guidance for others exploring ways to launch or enhance health equity, consumer engagement, quality improvement, or cost containment initiatives.
Read full report here:
January 2011 -
State Uses of Hospital Discharge Databases to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities
This report summarizes how leading states that participate in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) and their clients use hospital discharge data on patient race/ethnicity to inform state health care disparities reduction activities. The report features California, Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin HCUP Partners, but also notes activity in Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, and South Carolina. Partner States’ experiences demonstrate that patient race/ethnicity data are an important tool for informing state initiatives and producing policy- and practice-relevant publications to support health equity.
September 2010» -
Evaluating the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Potential and Limitations of Claims-Based Data
This State Health Policy Briefing summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of using claims-based data to evaluate patient-centered medical home initiatives. A Medicaid-based medical home initiative in Oklahoma and a multi-payer medical home pilot in Rhode Island are highlighted. Both states are using a mixture of claims-based data and supplementary resources like patient or provider surveys and data collected from electronic medical records to evaluate their medical home programs. Understanding the potential uses and limitations of both claims data and other data sources that can aid evaluators will help states to design appropriate evaluative criteria for their medical home programs.September 2010» -
Enhancing Clinical Information in Statewide Hospital Administrative Data: Project Summary and Lessons Learned
This report, developed by Thomson Reuters and NASHP, is based on lessons from the AHRQ-sponsored Adding Clinical Data project, which awarded Pilot or Planning contracts to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Partner organizations in Florida, Minnesota, Virginia, and Washington to explore feasible, practical solutions to adding clinical data to administrative discharge records. Adding present on admission coding and laboratory results to existing administrative datasets is seen as a practical, effective, and cost-effective method to produce more accurate and expanded quality assessments of hospitals; it will also provide the evidence base for quality improvement efforts.January 2010» -
Measurement to Support Effective Identification of Children at Risk for Developmental Delay
This State Health Policy Briefing is the third in a series examining the efforts of 19 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to improve identification of children with or at risk for developmental delay. For 15 months, ending in July 2008, these states and territories worked together, with the support of NASHP and The Commonwealth Fund, to make policy and practice changes that supported primary care providers’ use of a validated developmental screening tool as part of well child care. Screening Academy members received an intensive program of technical assistance during these 15 months, including assistance to support measurement. This briefing examines the efforts of the 21 members to produce meaningful data to make the case for change, develop training targeted to primary care provider needs, and assess whether changes produced the intended effect. By the end of these 15 months:April 2009 -
ABCD Screening Academy Progress Report: Improving the Identification of Young Children At-Risk for Developmental Delay
Since 2000, the Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) Initiative has shown that states can take action to facilitate pediatric provider use of a developmental screening tool and that doing so is an important first step in improving the delivery of child development services. The Initiative's partners - NASHP and The Commonwealth Fund - have for the past 18 months conducted the ABCD Screening Academy. Participating states have been working together to identify and implement the policies and practices that move the use of standardized developmental screening tools as part of well-child care from a best practice to a standard practice. This new publication summarizes the progress of ABCD Screening Academy participating states toward policy and practice improvement during the first phase of the project.September 2008» -
2007 Guide to State Adverse Event Reporting Systems
Since the Institute of Medicine called for a nationwide, mandatory reporting system to provide for the collection by state governments of standardized information about adverse medical events, much state activity has focused on the development and refinement of these systems. The information collected can help identify health system weaknesses, complement other state functions, and help safeguard health-care consumers.December 2007 -
Measuring and Evaluating Developmental Services: Strategies and Lessons from the ABCD II Consortium States
Since 2000, the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and The Commonwealth Fund have conducted state learning consortia – in the Assuring better Child Health and Development (ABCD) initiative – dedicated to improving the delivery of child development services to young children who are Medicaid beneficiaries. The work of the eight ABCD states has shown that state policies, especially Medicaid policies, can effectively promote improvements in the quality of preventive and developmental services provided to young children.December 2006 -
Residential Care and Assisted Living: State Oversight Practices and State Information Available to Consumers
This report reviews state monitoring and oversight practices of assisted living facilities, along with information that is available on state agency Web sites to consumers and family members about assisted living.September 2006»
