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Study Highlights Shortcomings of Individual Health Plans
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2012 CommentIf ever there was a sign that many individual health insurance plans leave something to be desired, it surfaced this week in a study published in Health Affairs. The study found that more than half of the 14 million Americans who buy coverage directly from insurance companies wind up in health plans that fail to meet standards for essential benefits set by the Affordable Care Act. The analysis, by a team of researchers at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and the benefits firm Towers Watson, also showed that most people who are insured through employers have more comprehensive benefits and pay a smaller share of the cost.
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Best Children’s Hospitals: Changes Coming in New Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2012 CommentSharp-eyed users of our Best Children's Hospitals rankings will note the presence of new data points when the 2012-13 rankings are published June 5. The addition of these data points, along with a change in how we factor in each hospital's reputation as determined by a survey of pediatric specialists, reflect the latest refinements to the methodology behind our rankings.
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Ratings of Medicare Advantage Plans Take Fire
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2012 CommentUsing stars to rate health plans isn't as simple as using them to rate restaurants or movies. Just ask the agency that governs Medicare, which is now facing renewed criticism over the one- to five-star ratings it uses to evaluate Medicare Advantage plans.
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Continuity of Information: Will EMRs Remedy Discontinuity of Care?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 3, 2012 Comment (5)Back when health information technology amounted to a clipboard, paper and a pen, “continuity of care” was one of the bedrock principles of medicine. It meant that whenever possible, primary-care physicians should oversee their patients’ care, serving as healers and advisors through every phase of the medical experience. Those days are all but gone, replaced by 15-minute office visits and episodic medical encounters, as patient migrate from one doctor to the next, depending on who’s covered in their insurance plan.
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Big Gaps in Health Insurance Coverage, Report Says
Tweet Share on Facebook April 19, 2012 Comment (2)As we wait for the Supreme Court to release its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, there may be no better time to reconsider what started the furor over health reform. A new report lays out in the starkest detail why the court’s decision will have profound implications for tens of millions of Americans.
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TEDMED's Top 20: A List of Big Health Challenges
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2012 CommentThe votes are counted, and the results are in. The 1,500 so-called delegates attending this week’s TEDMED conference at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. -- and many more watching via live simulcast at some 2,000 sites around the U.S. -- have selected the 20 “Great Challenges” in healthcare that they believe deserve the most attention in the year ahead. “Inventing wellness programs that work” was the top vote getter, followed by the overwhelming burden borne by 44 million people caring for ailing relatives. Rounding out the top three was the challenge of shifting role of patients who find themselves navigating a medical landscape that is growing more costly, complicated and inhospitable by the day. The many TEDMED attendees, who winnowed the winners from a list of 50, know challenges when they see them. They included leading medical researchers, CEO’s, venture capitalists, start-up entrepreneurs, health advocates and patients, who rarely get a chance to take center stage at big medical and scientific talk-fests.
Many attendees have come back, year after year, lured by TEDMED’s dedication to incorporating compassionate human stories into sessions focused on technology, entertainment and design (the TED part of the name). This year, TEDMED’s new owner, Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com, moved the meeting from San Diego to Washington, as the first stage in an ambitious attempt to, as he put it, “take TEDMED and grow it into something important for the nation and the world.” Identifying the 20 Great Challenges was one step in that plan. Walker acknowleges that the TEDMED effort is unlikely to produce sweeping solutions any time soon. “We won’t get answers,” he says. “We’ll get a better understanding.” The advocates who backed the challenges were selected for their stature and accomplishments. And they weren’t shy about stumping for their cause. “Can I have your vote,” David Ludwig, an obesity expert at Children’s Hospital in Boston, asked anyone in earshot. He achieved his goal. “Childhood obesity” made the top ten. Now the question is what happens next. Walker’s goal was to launch discussion of these issues that will somehow, hopefully, knock them off the list once and for all. That’s something anyone can root for.
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Our Challenge to TEDMED
Tweet Share on Facebook April 10, 2012 Comment (4)Take away the 25 percent or so of U.S. adults that don't use the internet. At least 80 percent of those who remain, according to the latest survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, use it to look up health information. As medical care becomes more complicated and face-to-face time with caregivers more fraught, the percentage of information-seekers will surely grow.
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Coming This Summer: Hospital Rankings by State
Tweet Share on Facebook March 29, 2012 CommentThis summer's 2012-13 Best Hospitals release will showcase a new feature: state rankings. It reflects a continuing effort to make Best Hospitals useful to families whether their home is a megalopolis, a small town, or something in between. The new rankings will show every hospital in their state that met our rigorous standards.
We already rank hospitals within 94 metro areas with 500,000 or more residents, so why bother? Aren't most first-rate hospitals found in major metro areas? Yes—and no. Let's look at the numbers.
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Individual Health Insurance Plans: Too Many Options, Too Little Guidance
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2012 Comment (5)Each year U.S. News, like most sizable enterprises, offers its employees various options for health insurance coverage. This past fall my wife and I, with the usual uncertainty and trepidation, selected one. We hope we chose wisely.
But we had it easy compared with the roughly 33 million Americans who can't get group health coverage and aren't eligible for public coverage through Medicaid and Medicare. They must either go without coverage (otherwise referred to as going bare) or shop for one of the commercial health plans marketed directly to individuals. Since employers aren't picking up part of the cost, the size of the monthly premium will have a lot to say about the coverage these individuals and their families can afford. Perhaps it's not surprising that at least half of them go without.
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Welcome to Second Opinion
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2012 CommentThe tone and much of the message of this new blog may ring a bell with those who visited Comarow on Quality during its several-year run. As CoQ did, Second Opinion will focus on how U.S. News and other institutions evaluate healthcare quality. We will offer a behind-the-curtains view of Best Hospitals and other U.S. News health rankings—why we include certain data and exclude other types.
We will devote more space in Second Opinion, however, to discussions of what might be termed demonstrative data. These are the metrics that reveal important facets of healthcare performance, quality, and value. Finding, analyzing, and presenting such numbers—even creating them when necessary—are vital to all U.S. News health-related rankings and ratings.
