CHRTlines Blog
Recent Posts
05/20/2013 The Disconnect Between Health and Mental Health
05/06/2013 The ACA and the Hospital Readmissions Policy Debate
04/22/2013 New Approaches to Payment: Will They Work?
Spotlight
April 11, 2013
Detroit Free Press:
Workplace health care coverage dives in Michigan, report finds
CHRT Director Marianne Udow-Phillips explains what contributed to the decline in the number of Michigan residents covered by employer-sponsored health insurance between 2000 and 2011.
March 30, 2013
United Press International:
Better access to doctors in Michigan
Newswire service United Press International publishes a story on CHRT’s survey that shows Michigan Medicaid recipients report having an easier time accessing primary and specialty care in 2012 compared to 2010.
March 24, 2013
Detroit Free Press:
Will a Henry Ford-Beaumont megamerger be a benefit to the community?
In this examination of the $6.4-billion merger of the Henry Ford and Beaumont health systems, CHRT Director Marianne Udow-Phillips discusses incentives and cost-containment mechanisms in the Affordable Care Act that may be leading some hospitals to consider potential mergers.
March 22, 2013
Lucy Ann Lance Show:
Medicaid impact on primary care physicians
CHRT Director Marianne Udow-Phillips joins Lucy Ann Lance live on-air to discuss results from CHRT’s two most recently published surveys—the first in the Cover Michigan Survey 2013 series that examined access to health care and a survey of Michigan's primary care providers.
March 22, 2013
Detroit Free Press:
U.S. to administer Web health marketplace
CHRT Director Marianne Udow-Phillips explains what federally-run health insurance exchanges mean for consumers after state lawmakers likely guaranteed Michigan will miss out on a state/federal partnership.
Recent Event February 11, 2013
Massachusetts Comes to Michigan: Lessons about Health Care Reform from Business Leaders
Health Care Symposium
May 6, 2013
Acute Care Readmission Reduction Initiatives: Major Program Highlights
CHRT Policy Paper
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), acute care hospitals with high readmission rates for certain conditions are subject to a reduction in their Medicare payments. Beginning October 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began reducing hospitals’ Medicare payments based on their 30-day readmission rates for applicable conditions relative to national averages. Penalties are imposed for each hospital’s percentage of potentially preventable Medicare readmissions for those conditions. Two-thirds of all applicable hospitals nationally, including approximately one-third of Michigan hospitals, were penalized in FY 2013 as a result of this provision. This policy paper summarizes ten key initiatives that are under way across the country to try and reduce readmission rates.
March 18, 2013
Access to Health Care in Michigan
Cover Michigan Survey March 2013
Understanding the impact of health care coverage (or the lack of it) on health care access is crucial to improving the picture of health care in Michigan. The Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT), in partnership with the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, has surveyed Michigan residents three times (in 2009, 2010, and 2012) on key issues relating to health care coverage, access to care, and health status. The latest survey, Cover Michigan Survey 2013, was fielded in the third quarter of 2012. This report compares data from 2010 and 2012 and focuses on one aspect of that survey: the relationship between coverage status and access to care. Future reports will cover other aspects of health care in Michigan.
January 28, 2013
Primary Care Capacity and Health Reform: Is Michigan Ready?
CHRT Policy Brief January 2013
In the fall of 2012, the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT), in partnership with the Child Health Evaluation & Research Unit (CHEAR) at the University of Michigan, conducted a statewide survey of primary care physicians. The purpose of the survey was to understand the challenges and opportunities primary care physicians are facing in their practices in this era of health care reform. Since one of the most immediate questions facing the State of Michigan is whether to expand Medicaid coverage, this issue brief focuses specifically on one area of inquiry—Michigan primary care physicians’ capacity to serve new patients in both Medicaid and the private insurance market. The bottom line of the survey is that primary care physicians in Michigan overwhelmingly anticipate having capacity to serve more patients with all forms of health coverage, including Medicaid.
January 4, 2013
ACA 2013 Implementation Timeline
ACA 2013 Implementation Timeline (2-Page Letter)
ACA 2013 Implementation Timeline (Tabloid)Updated February 12, 2013. Since its passage in March 2010, many parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have already taken effect. However, 2013 is a significant year for ACA implementation because of health insurance coverage expansions through Medicaid (in participating states) and the insurance exchanges take effect on January 1, 2014. In addition to those provisions, health plans, providers, employers, and consumers all face a variety of provisions that begin in 2013. This timeline details provisions and deadlines scheduled during the 2013 calendar year.
October 14, 2012
The ACA’s Medicaid Expansion: Michigan Impact—State Budgetary Estimates and Other Impacts
CHRT Issue Brief October 2012
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 28, 2012, largely upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one provision was not upheld: penalties for states that opt out of the law’s Medicaid expansion. This left the decision to expand Medicaid—or not—to individual states, and as a result, it is now uncertain whether or not Medicaid will be available to all individuals below 138 percent of poverty in 2014 as the law intended. This issue brief is intended to provide Michigan policy makers and the public at large with a useful tool to consider this question by projecting the likely 10-year economic impacts in our state.
September 17, 2012
Affordable Care Act Funding: An Analysis of Grant Programs under Health Care Reform
CHRT Issue Brief September 2012
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a comprehensive law with the potential to affect the health of Americans in many ways. Many of its reforms and investments are paid for through direct public funding included in the law. Specifically, the ACA includes much of the funding necessary for creating health insurance exchanges, growing the capacity of the healthcare workforce, expanding primary care capacity through community health centers, and several other initiatives. While many major ACA provisions will not go into effect until 2014, many others have already been implemented and funded through federal grants to state governments, community-based organizations, colleges, and local agencies. This issue brief focuses on ACA grants that were awarded during a shortened fiscal year 2010 and for fiscal year 2011 and also examines other current and planned grant spending in the ACA and how funds have been distributed to states for a variety of programs.
August 23, 2012
Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy for Breast and Lung Cancer: A Review of Use, Cost, Clinical Evidence, and Safety
CHRT Issue Brief August 2012
Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is a type of radiation therapy that uses inverse-planning tools to derive beamlets with variable intensities within each beam to deliver highly conformal radiation doses to tumors while reducing radiation doses to healthy tissues. Its ability to reduce the radiation dose to surrounding tissue means that higher doses can be given to tumors without increasing the dose to healthy tissue. However, IMRT also introduces new safety and quality concerns as its complexities introduce opportunities for error that did not exist with older technologies. This issue brief summarizes available data and literature on the use of IMRT for breast and lung cancer, examining trends, evidence for its efficacy, safety regulations and opportunities for safety improvement.
August 13, 2012
The Affordable Care Act and its Effect on Health Insurance Market Segments
CHRT Policy Brief August 2012
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will bring a number of important changes to the private health insurance market. These changes include a series of provisions designed to enhance consumer protections, increase the value of insurance coverage, and standardize health plans sold to individuals and employers. However, these provisions will not take effect at the same time, nor will they affect all individuals and employers equally. This policy brief summarizes many relevant provisions of the ACA and their effects on each segment of the health insurance market, including effects on plans deemed "grandfathered" under the ACA.
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University of Michigan Health System &
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