Enhancing value in Medicare: demonstrations and other initiatives to improve the program Enhancing value in Medicare: demonstrations and other initiatives to improve the program

Collection: Health Policy and Services Research Contributor(s): Guterman, Stuart Serber, Michelle P. Commonwealth Fund. Commonwealth Fund. Commission on a High Performance Health System. Publication: [New York, N.Y.] : Commonwealth Fund, [2007] Language(s): English Format: Text Subject(s): Medicare -- organization & administration Pilot Projects Quality of Health Care United States Genre(s): Technical Report Abstract: Medicare was designed to deal primarily with the effects of acute illness, which was seen at the time of the program's inception as the major threat to the health and financial security of the aged. While it has fulfilled this purpose reasonably well, demographic and other changes pose new challenges to Medicare and the health care system as a whole. Moreover, that system must deal with sub-par performance, both on cost and quality. This report, which examines Medicare's efforts to play a more proactive role in the purchase of appropriate, high quality, and efficient health care for its beneficiaries, provides an overview of Medicare demonstrations, pilots, and other initiatives in two categories: chronic care and provider performance. The process of identifying, testing, evaluating, and implementing Medicare policy improvements is also discussed, and recommendations for improving that process are offered Copyright: Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information) Illustrations: Illustrations NLM Unique ID: 101309759 (See catalog record) Permanent Link: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101309759