Providing the highest health care quality possible in today's climate of health care cost control is a major challenge for hospitals, physicians and other providers who want only to practice the best possible medicine on behalf of their patients.  Providers also face many of the same challenges as business in affording the best possible coverage for their employees.  The changing policy landscape requires that providers remain informed and engaged relative to local, state and national initiatives related to health care quality, access and cost.

The following resources provide information on trends and policies impacting health care delivery, quality, costs, and reimbursement.      

Links:

• Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology, Congressional Budget Office, May 2008
• The Value Of Electronic Health Records In Solo Or Small Group Practices.  Miller et al. Health Affairs.2005; 24: 1127-1137
  
• Improving the quality of healthcare through health information exchange - selected findings from eHealth Initiative's third annual survey of health information exchange activities at the state, regional, and local levels.  September 25, 2006. eHealth Initiative
• State eHealth Activities in 2007. Findings from a State Survey  Commonwealth Fund
• Personal Health Records and Personal Health Record Systems. 
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
• eHealth Initiative, Value & Sustainability Model & Toolkit
• Creating Sustainable Local Health Information Exchanges: Can Barriers to Stakeholder Participation be Overcome? Center for Studying Health System Change, Research Brief: Feb.2008:2
• State E-Health Activities in 2007: Findings from a State Survey.  Commonwealth Fund, February 15, 2008
• Presentation to the National Governors Association's Health and Human Services Committee.  The Outlook for Spending: Health Care and Long Term Care, Congresisonal Budget Office, February, 2008.
• Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending, Congressional Budget Office, February, 2008.
• Technology Change and the Growth of Health Care Spending. Congressional Budget Office, January, 2008.
• Research on the Comparative Effectiveness of Medical Treatments:  Issues and Options for an Expanded Federal Role. Congressional Budget Office, December, 2007.
• The Long-Term Outlook for Health Care Spending, Congressional Budget Office, November, 2008.
• Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program, MedPac July, 2007.
• Report to Congress, Medicare Payment Policy , MedPac March, 2008. 
• States in Action: A Bimonthly Look at Innovations in Health Policy, February/March 2008  
• Bending the Curve:  Options for Achieving Savings and Improving Value in U.S. Health Spending, The Commonwealth Fund, December 2007.
• Prescription Drug Trends Fact Sheet - May 2007 Update, Kaiser Family Foundation
  
• The Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit - An Updated Fact Sheet
• Unhealthy Trends: The Future of Physician Services. Health Affairs, 26, no. 6, 2007.
• Achieving a High-Performing Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2008:148.
• States in Action: A Bimonthly Look at Innovations in Health Care. Commonwealth Fund, February 27, 2008
• The Impending Collapse of Primary Car Medicine and Its Implications for the State of the Nation's Health Care: A Report from the American College of Physicians, January 30, 2006
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• The Commonwealth Foundation
• The Kaiser Family Foundation
• The Institute of Medicine
• The Journal of Health Affairs
• The New England Journal of Medicine
• The American College of Physicians
• The American Medical Society
• The eHealth Initiative
• The Congressional Budget Office
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicare
• MedPac
• The Centers for Disease Control
• The National Center for Health Statistics
• Center for Studying Health System Change