February 2nd, 2006

Fuchs, Baker respond to State of the Union healthcare proposals, question value of HSAs

In articles published in the San Francisco Chronicle and Stanford Report, CHP/PCOR core faculty member Victor Fuchs and fellow Laurence Baker responded to the healthcare proposals touted by President Bush in his State of the Union address -- most notably the expansion of health savings accounts. Fuchs and Baker both questioned the value of HSAs, saying they will help healthy, high-income people the most; could lead sicker individuals to forego needed care; won't save a great deal of money; and fail to address major system-wide problems such as access to care, the growing number of uninsured, and uneven quality of care throughout the U.S. healthcare system.

• » San Francisco Chronicle article, "Bush's health care agenda: President to address savings accounts in speech"
• » Stanford Report article, "Health-care proposal causes grave concerns among top economists"

January 27th, 2006

Internet use can help patients with stigmatized illness, study finds

A study by CHP/PCOR fellows finds that the Internet can be a valuable tool to help break through the stigma of conditions such as mental illness, by enabling patients to anonymously seek information and treatment.
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January 1st, 2006

At Eisenberg lecture, Wennberg discusses practice variation, urges healthcare finance reform

In his 30-plus years of studying healthcare utilization and costs across the United States, John E. Wennberg has found that just about the only constant in the nation's healthcare system is inconsistency. Wennberg, director of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School, discussed unwarranted variations in medical practice as the featured speaker for the 2005 Eisenberg Legacy Lecture, hosted by CHP/PCOR on Nov. 3. presentation available
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November 18th, 2005

Study: some Calif. hospitals spend 4x more on the chronically ill, with no gain in quality

A study, Evaluating The Efficiency Of California Providers In Caring For Patients With Chronic Illness, co-authored by CHP/PCOR fellow Laurence Baker, released on Nov. 16 as a Health Affairs Web exclusive, finds that some California hospitals spend as much as four times more than others to care for patients with similar chronic illnesses, with no gain in quality or patient satisfaction for those that spend more. In fact, the study found, as the volume of care increased, patient satisfaction and quality of care declined. The study, funded by the California HealthCare Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, allows for direct comparisons of the efficiency of individual hospitals in treating patients with chronic illness based on Medicare claims from a hospital and its physicians. Lead author John E. Wennberg -- director of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School, and founding editor of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care -- highlighted several of the study findings at his recent talk for the 2005 Eisenberg Legacy Lecture hosted by CHP/PCOR. The findings were covered in articles by the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

• » San Francisco Chronicle article, "More care not always better, study says"
• » Los Angeles Times article, "L.A. leads in costly care for the dying"

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August 26th, 2005

In SF Chronicle, Baker discusses regional differences in health benefits

CHP/PCOR fellow Laurence C. Baker provides comment for an Aug. 25 San Francisco Chronicle article on a Bureau of Labor Statistics report which found that workers in the West have higher-than-average access to employer-sponsored health coverage, but are offered retiree benefits at the lowest rate in the nation. Read more »