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We don’t often associate crowded emergency departments with dental complaints. But according to The Pew Center on the States, preventable dental conditions were the primary diagnosis in over 800,000 visits to ERs in the U.S. This makes sense, as more than 100 million Americans lack oral health coverage, and therefore have impaired access to dental […]

A consumer walks down the street using a smartphone – but rather than texting a friend, calling home or checking email, she is reporting data that will inform a clinician about the status of her asthma management. Is this scenario real or fantasy? As Americans grow more and more comfortable with technology in daily life […]

Medicaid can be as much as 25 percent or more of a state’s expenditures — a share that appears to be rising, not shrinking. In 2011 Medicaid accounted for 24 percent of total state spending, including federal grants. To address their budgetary challenges, an increasing number of states are turning to Medicaid managed care. As […]

According to the health reform law, health insurance exchanges are to begin covering people in every state by January 2014. While some states have made progress toward establishing their own exchanges by this deadline, others have displayed little activity in this arena. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of the law, […]

Community health centers (CHCs) play a critical role in providing care to vulnerable populations, especially at a time when employer-sponsored coverage has declined and the demand for safety-net services has gone up. Currently, there are more than 1,100 community health centers providing care to approximately 20.2 million people in every state across the U.S. The […]

It’s been said that the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will keep legions of lawyers employed for years to come. The same could be said for health reporters, political writers, bloggers, editorialists, talk show bookers, TV news producers and documentary makers. Rather than dousing controversy about the health reform […]

The Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of the health reform law. Now it remains for stakeholders, policymakers, analysts and taxpayers to take it from here. Shifts in health care delivery towards more coordinated care to improve quality and efficiency are already taking place in the public and private sector. But many provisions in […]

Urgent care centers and retail clinics are rapidly emerging within the health care system — a partial response to rising health care costs and a possible flood of new demand for care as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is fully implemented. The number of patient visits to retail health clinics grew by 1,000 percent […]

Though there is still disagreement about the extent to which various cost drivers contribute to the troubling trajectory of health care spending in the United States, there are success stories. This briefing took a look at some of the innovative strategies in both the public and private sectors that have bent the cost curve downwards […]

Safety-net hospitals play a critical role in providing care to vulnerable populations, especially at a time when employer-sponsored coverage has declined and the demand for safety-net services has gone up. While the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) creates some opportunities for safety-net providers, it also presents significant challenges. Medicaid is the single largest […]

This is the second event in a three-part series of discussions on costs, the factors driving them up and what (if anything) can be done about them. The series marks the Alliance for Health Reform’s 20th year of promoting informed and balanced discussion of health policy issues. Much has been said about spending in governmental […]

An estimated one out of five adults in the U.S. suffers with mental illness. Some 11 million adults reported an unmet need for mental health care in the past year, a situation no doubt made worse by the recent recession and higher-than-normal unemployment. The health reform law has specific provisions covering mental health and substance […]