Integrated care systems have unique advantages for conducting research. The HMO Research Network (HMORN) includes research centers associated with 13 large integrated care systems whose research focuses on improving health and health care delivery using the extraordinary platform provided by these health systems. We conducted literature reviews and surveys and interviews with directors of HMORN...

Growing public interest in the operations of managed care plans has fueled a variety of activities to collect and analyze their performance. These activities include studies of financial performance, analysis of enrollment decisions, and, more recently, the development of systems for measuring healthcare quality to improve accountability to consumers. In this study, the authors focus on the act...

Editorial Note: At its September, 2015 meeting in Mahnomen, Minnesota, the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services examined the changing nature of the health care system in the United States and how rural providers can be included in these changes (known as Delivery System Reform (DSR)) without undermining access to quality health services. During the meeting the Committe...

Avoidable hospitalizations represent a key indicator for access to, and the quality of, primary care. Therefore, understanding their behavior is essential in terms of management of healthcare resources and costs. This analysis examines the affect of 2 healthcare strategies on the rate of avoidable hospitalization, managed care and the healthcare safety net. The avoidable hospitalizations defini...

One important motive for deregulating social health insurance is to encourage product innovation. For the first time, the cost savings achieved by non-US managed care plans that are attributable to product innovation are estimated, using a novel approach. Panel data from a major Swiss health insurer permits to infer health status, which can be used to predict health care expenditure. The econom...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether an accreditation program facilitates healthcare organizations (HCOs) to evolve and maintain high-performance human resource management (HRM) systems. DESIGN Cross-sectional multimethod study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Healthcare organizations participating in the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP 4) b...

Lessons from community-oriented primary care in the United States can offer insights into how we could improve population health by integrating the public health, social service, and health care sectors to form accountable communities for health (ACHs). Unlike traditional accountable care organizations (ACOs) that address population health from a health care perspective, ACHs address health fro...

increasing of the aging population in most of the developed countries should be more attention to the health issues of this aged group. in iran, the ageing program has been launched and some institutes or organizations have been in charge of this program. the coordination of health policies and activities in elderly care programs and ageing networks could be helped to improve of elderly life sp...

(VHA) is an interdisciplinary group authorized by the Under Secretary for Health through the National Center for Ethics in Health Care. The NEC produces reports on timely topics that are of significant concern to practicing health care professionals. Each report describes an ethical issue, summarizes its historical context, discusses its relevance to VHA, reviews current controversies, and outl...

The purpose of this article is to discuss core competencies that entrepreneurial health care leaders should acquire to ensure the survival and growth of US health care organizations. Three overlapping areas of core competencies are described: (1) health care system and environment competencies, (2) organization competencies, and (3) interpersonal competencies. This study offers insight into the...