This conference report summarizes discussions at a March 2018 conference in Washington with 30 leaders from the health care community to launch Initiative 18/11, a partnership between the Society of Actuaries and KFF to address the rising cost of health care in the United States. It also lays out the next steps for the initiative.

In advance of the 2016 presidential election, the August Kaiser Health Tracking Poll examines what health care issues voters would most like to hear the presidential candidates talk about during their campaigns and which candidate voters trust to do a better job of dealing with certain health care issues. In addition, the August Tracking Poll continues KFF’s analysis on attitudes related to the Zika virus outbreak as well as provides an update on attitudes towards electronic health records.

Electronic Medical Records: Eight in 10 Americans Say It Is Important for Providers to Computerize Records, But Half Worry About Unauthorized Access to Online Information With the 2016 elections just 10 weeks away, voters give Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton a substantial advantage over Republican nominee Donald Trump on a…

Under the ACA, states have a new Medicaid option to establish “health homes” designed to improve care coordination and integration and reduce costs for beneficiaries with chronic conditions. Thus far, 15 states have implemented health home programs. Following on a 2012 brief profiling Medicaid health home programs in the first six states to adopt the option, this brief describes the health home programs in the nine states that have implemented them since that time, and highlights common themes across them as well as distinctions among them.

Rhode Island’s Chronic Care Sustainability Initiative (CSI) is a multi-payer patient-centered medical home program in which the one Medicaid health plan and all commercial health plans in the state participate. Hallmarks of the initiative are engaged leadership, mandatory participation but participatory governance, a common contract used by all payers, and investments in health information technology and other support for practice transformation.

Community Care of North Carolina’s Transitional Care Program (TCP) provides robust transition planning for high-risk Medicaid inpatients to support sound transitions from the hospital back to the community and reduce emergency department use and readmissions. Integral elements of the TCP are hospital-based care managers who coordinate with care managers in medical home practices; centralized health information technology, and standard care management training and tools.

An integral component of Colorado Medicaid’s coordinated care initiative, the Accountable Care Collaborative, is the Statewide Data Analytics Contractor (SDAC), which is responsible for providing actionable data through a web portal to primary care providers and regional care collaborative organizations. The metrics and tools the SDAC provides undergird the effort to drive improvement in care management and individual and community health, and support the accountable care model.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there will be a new continuum of coverage options available beginning in 2014. While there currently is significant focus on enrolling eligible people into these new coverage options, it also is important to plan for how to keep eligible people enrolled in coverage over…

New Survey Finds States Investing in Technology, Simplifying Enrollment Processes Washington, D.C. – Nearly all states are pressing forward with information technology and process improvements to develop faster, streamlined Medicaid enrollment systems as required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) whether or not the state elects to expand Medicaid coverage under…

The Alliance for Health Reform hosted a September 28 briefing to discuss electronic health records (EHRs), and the progress of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Speakers explored such questions as: How does health information technology fit in the strategy for health care delivery transformation?…