Insurance Coverage & Costs
Access to Care
Quality & Care Delivery
Health Care Markets
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Community Reports
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Community Reports
ommunity Reports provide information and insights about developments in health care markets communities across the country. The reports typically describe how care is organized and delivered; the strategies of local employers and public purchasers; and how the actions of lawmakers and regulators are shaping health care.
RWJF State Health Reform Assistance Network Initiative
As part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) State Health Reform Assistance Network initiative, HSC examined commercial and Medicaid health insurance markets in eight U.S. metropolitan areas: Baltimore; Portland, Ore.; Denver; Long Island, N.Y.; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Birmingham, Ala.; Richmond, Va.; and Albuquerque, N.M. The study examined both how these markets function currently and are changing over time, especially in preparation for national health reform as outlined under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The site visits took place in 2012-13. In 2013, HSC will publish Community Reports for each community and two cross-site analyses based on findings from the site studies. More information can be found here.
Community Tracking Study (CTS)
As part of the CTS, HSC tracked 12 communities intensively over time to better understand the changing health system and variations across markets. Starting in 1995, the CTS Community Reports describe what changed every two or three years in these communities, including how care is organized and delivered; the strategies of local employers and public purchasers; and how the actions of lawmakers and regulators shaped health care. Together, these reports represent one of the few ongoing, long-term assessments of the nation's health care system at the community level.
In 2010, HSC completed the its seventh round of the CTS site visits, and has publishinged Community Reports from each site. The 2010 CTS and resulting Community Reports were jointly funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute for Health Care Reform (NIHCR). In addition to the 12 CTS sites, an August 2010 Detroit Community Report, funded by NIHCR, was published.
CTS Community Reports for 2010, 2005, 2002-03, 2000-01, 1998-99, 1996-1997 and the preliminary round of site visits called the Community Snapshots Project (1995) are available. HSC did not publish Community Reports following the 2007 site visits.
HSC also publishes analyses that examine market trends across the twelve communities. These "cross cutting" analyses help to keep policy makers abreast of emerging issues. Such analyses may be found here.
California Site Studies
As part of the California Health Care Almanac project, the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) funded HSC to conduct interviews in six California communities in 2011-12 to assess how the organization, financing and delivery of health care are changing, including preparations for health reform. CHCF has published regional market reports for each community. A previous round of California site studies was conducted by HSC researchers in 2008. More information can be found here.
