Public and private insurers are key stakeholders in the ongoing debate over how best to ensure access to high quality health care while controlling rising health care costs.   As payers and employers, it is imperative that insurers be informed of emerging trends, issues and policies regarding health care delivery and engaged in the growing national debate over coverage.   

The following resources provide information on trends and approaches to managing health care costs under public and private insurance programs as well as in the work place.  

Links:

• Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology, Congressional Budget Office, May 2008
• 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
• 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