Payment Reform Resources

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  The CommonWealth Fund Issue Brief: Hospitals on the Path to Accountable Care

  August 17, 2012 - Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are forming in communities across the country. In ACOs, health care providers take responsibility for a defined patient population, coordinate their care across settings, and are held jointly accountable for the qual



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  Striving for Top Box: Hospitals Increasing Quality and Efficiency

  April 01, 2011 - This guide was created to share best practices and key lessons from innovative organizations on a variety of topics including care coordination, health and wellness, equity of care, and new payment and care delivery models.



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  Health Care Leader Action Guide: Understanding and Managing Variation

  February 01, 2011 - The guide includes practical steps to understanding and managing variation and a list of best practices and case studies as examples and resources for hospital leaders to use for implementing key interventions



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  Call to Action: Creating a Culture of Health

  January 01, 2011 - The AHA's Long-Range Policy Committee developed a comprehensive report, A Call to Action: Creating a Culture of Health. It highlights current practices that hospitals use today with their own employees, gives examples of promising practices, and provides



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  A Guide to Financing Strategies for Hospitals - With Special Consideration for Smaller Hospitals

  December 01, 2010 - This guide explores seven strategies that can help hospitals achieve the best possible capital access.



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  Practical Issues in the Design and Implementation of Pay-for-Quality Programs

  October 13, 2010 - Analysis of issues surrounding the design and implementation of pay-for-quality programs offers insight to health system managers considering these programs or re-evaluating their existing internal compensation mechanisms.



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  Factors Impacting the Implementation, Transfer and Retention of Patient Safety Best Practices in North American Acute Care Hospitals: Assessing Organizational Readiness for Practice Change

  October 08, 2010 - Understanding an organization's capacity for change can result in more successful implementation of patient safety best practices.



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  Evidence for Improving Efficiency

  August 25, 2010 - Evidence for Improving Efficiency



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  The Struggle to Pay for Health Care

  August 25, 2010 - The Struggle to Pay for Health Care



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  Early Lessons from the Bundled Payment Acute Care Episode Demonstration Project

  July 21, 2010 - Early Lessons from the Bundled Payment Acute Care Episode Demonstration Project



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  Health Care Leader Action Guide on Implementation of Electronic Health Records

  July 01, 2010 - Health Care Leader Action Guide on Implementation of Electronic Health Records



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  AHA Research Synthesis Report: Accountable Care Organizations

  June 01, 2010 - This guide presents ideas to consider in developing an ACO and reviews the key competencies that are needed in order to be an accountable ACO.



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  Using Workforce Practices to Drive Quality Improvement: A Guide for Hospitals

  June 01, 2010 - Using Workforce Practices to Drive Quality Improvement: A Guide for Hospitals



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  A Guide to Achieving High Performance in Multi-Hospital Health System

  March 01, 2010 - The guide provides numerous tools that leaders can use to help drive performance improvement regardless if they are part of a health system; the lessons are transferrable to all hospitals.



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  Health Care Leader Action Guide to Reduce Avoidable Readmissions

  January 01, 2010 - Reducing avoidable hospital readmissions is an opportunity to improve quality and reduce costs in the health care system.



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  Where Do I Send Thee? Does Physician-Ownership Affect Referral Patterns To Ambulatory Surgery Centers?

  January 01, 2008 - For more than three decades, Congress has struggled with potential financial conflicts of interest when physicians share in financial gain from nonprofessional services.



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  The Profitability of Medicare Admissions Based on Source of Admission

  January 01, 2008 - Objectives: This study investigates whether admissions from the emergency department (ED) have lower dollar margins than elective admissions under Medicare and explores two possible reasons for differences in margins.



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  The Struggle to Pay for Health Care

  January 01, 2007 - A Kaiser/HRET survey finds that while premium increases slowed this year, they're still rising at a rate more than double that of inflation.



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  A Worldwide Crisis

  January 01, 2006 - A shortage of health care workers disproportionately affects developing countries, but it endangers us all.



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  The Disappearing Hospital Emergency Department

  January 01, 2006 - A survey finds that as short-term, general hospitals close, the number of U.