| Hot Topic: HCFO Year in Review |
 |
|
|
The end of the year offers an ideal opportunity to take stock. Did the investments we made in 2011 through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s HCFO program have an impact? Did our work matter? Did we do our part to improve health and health care in this country? The answer is yes. Our investments do make an impact, our work – your work – matters and each of us is doing what we can to provide the evidence policymakers need to improve health and health care in this
country.
|
 |
|
| HCFO Releases New Findings Brief on the Status of Undocumented Immigrants After Health Reform |
|
|
|
The issue of health care coverage for undocumented immigrants is complex and politically challenging. Although the flow of undocumented immigrants has slowed in recent years, due in part to the economic recession, they remain an important population for the health policy debate. In a HCFO-funded study, Stephen Zuckerman, Ph.D, Timothy Waidmann, Ph.D., and Emily Lawton of the Urban Institute examined the impact of the undocumented immigrant population on the U.S. health care system. The
results of this study were published in the October 2011 issue of Health Affairs.
|
|
|
| New Data for Researchers |
|
|
|
Cost of Hospitalization Highest Among the Nonelderly
The average cost of a hospital stay grew more quickly for patients age 64 and younger than it did for the elderly between 1997 and 2009, according to a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
According to data from the Federal agency, the cost of a stay in a community hospital during this period increased by 4 percent per year for patients 64 and younger, and by 3 percent per year for those 65 and older.
These finding are based on data described in Statistical Brief #123: Components of Growth in Inpatient Hospital Costs, 1997-2009. The report uses data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). For information about this and other HCUP databases, please visit http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/datahcup.htm.
|
|
|
| Grantee Spotlight: Joseph Newhouse, Ph.D. |
|
|
|
Joseph P. Newhouse, Ph.D., is John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University, director of the Division of Health Policy Research and Education, chair of the Committee on Higher Degrees in Health Policy, and director of the Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy. He is a member of the faculties of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In addition, he
is a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Newhouse received his B.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
|
|
|
| News and Events |
|
|
|
Grantees in the News
Two articles resulting from HCFO-supported work were nominated for the RWJF Year in Research. Each year, RWJF chooses 20 research articles based on their solid research and popularity on the Foundation’s website. The two HCFO selections were:
• “US Physician Practices Versus Canadians: Spending Nearly Four Times as Much Money Interacting with Payers”
• “Following the Money: Factors Associated with the Cost of Treating High-Cost Medicare Beneficiaries”
Vote today! Voting ends December 23.
HCFO-funded research led by Ateev Mehrotra, M.D., M.P.H., has been featured in multiple media outlets following recent publication in the American Journal of Managed Care. Mehrotra and colleagues found that the use of retail clinics increased
dramatically among a commercially insured population between 2007 and 2009.
HCFO News
HCFO Deputy Director and AcademyHealth Vice President of Strategic Planning and Business Development, Bonnie Austin, J.D., was selected as a new member of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). Ms. Austin was selected in recognition of her work to improve the quality of research, policymaking, and financing of social insurance systems
such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and related social assistance and private employee benefits. To read more, visit the AcademyHealth blog.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
