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Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

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At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

The Oregon Health Plan and public health.

The Oregon Health Plan would provide all Oregonians with health insurance through a combination of Medicaid expansion, employer mandates and high-risk coverage, with services delivered largely through managed care. The role of public health in a managed care environment is an important national issue, and one which has received much attention in Oregon. "Cultural" differences between Medicaid and public health have arisen over issues such as whether eligibility assures access, whether the private medical model will provide integrated care, the potential for exploitation of vulnerable populations in a capitated system, and the loss of cost-based Medicaid reimbursement to public clinics. In 1991, legislation required that Oregon's Medicaid managed care plans enter agreements with local health departments to assure their continued participation in providing certain public health services; these agreements are now being implemented. Oregon's experience suggests that any national health system will require a continuum of community and individual health services, with an important role for public health departments.

Health Benefit Plans, Employee↗
PubMed2001

The impact of HIPAA's privacy rules on multiemployer group health plans.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) imposed a number of requirements that affect multiemployer group health plans, among them the Privacy Rules, with which most group health plans must comply by April 14, 2003. Because the Privacy Rules are complex and carry significant penalties, multiemployer group health plans and trustees should begin preparing for them soon.

Confidentiality↗
PubMed2005

Adjusting Pediatric Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study (CAHPS) Scores to Ensure Fair Comparison of Health Plan Performances.

OBJECTIVES: When comparing the scores from Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study (CAHPS) surveys across health plans, it is important to adjust for patient characteristics (casemix) that are not under the control of the plan but that affect plan ratings. Our goal was to develop casemix models for pediatric CAHPS surveys. METHODS: We analyzed responses to the pediatric CAHPS 2.0 surveys from 50,583 Medicaid beneficiaries and 43,579 persons with private health insurance. We identified patient characteristics with the most substantial impact on scores and assessed casemix models that include different combinations of adjusters. In addition, we tested whether casemix coefficients differed between the Medicaid and commercial samples and across health plans. RESULTS: Parent age and education and child health status and race were important casemix adjustment variables for pediatric CAHPS surveys. Child age and gender had smaller effects. The relationship between patient characteristics and CAHPS scores was different in the Medicaid and commercial samples for some variables. The effects of a patient's characteristics on ratings and report scores were not consistent across Medicaid plans but more consistent for commercial plans. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses indicate that plan scores on the pediatric CAHPS survey should be adjusted for plan differences in casemix. Users should consider estimating separate models for Medicaid and commercially insured respondents. Such models should adjust for child health status, parent age, and parent education.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Waking the health plan giant: Group Health Cooperative stops counting sheep and starts counting key tobacco indicators.

Implementing a comprehensive approach to decreasing tobacco use in a large health plan requires hard work and commitment on the part of many individuals. We found that major organisational change can be accomplished and sustained. Keys to our success included our decision to remove access barriers to our cessation programmes (including cost); obtaining top leadership buy-in; identifying accountable individuals who owned responsibility for change; measuring key processes and outcomes; and finally keeping at it tenaciously through multiple cycles of improvement.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

How purchasers evaluate health plans.

Single health care purchasers and purchasing coalitions are using price, quality and access indicators to help evaluate health plans and foster competition among them. Purchasers also are providing employees with financial reasons to be cost conscious in choosing a health plan and utilizing health services. And they are dispensing information to combat employees' negative perception of managed care.

Financial Management↗
PubMed1993

Harvard Community Health Plan's Mental Health Redesign Project: a managerial and clinical partnership.

Harvard Community Health Plan, founded in 1969 as a staff model HMO, is currently a staff and group model HMO with 521,000 members, 19 health centers and 12 independently owned group practices with 26 locations. In 1987, the Plan initiated a review of its mental health benefit and program because its costs were rising, member and clinician dissatisfaction was increasing and many believed the problem was the nature and scope of the benefit. After two years of study, surveys, interviews, cost and utilization analysis, the Plan identified its professional staff as its key asset but recognized many problem areas, including problems with access, variation from site to site, inconsistent service delivery, lack of consistent utilization management and the need for greater diversity along the spectrum of care available to members. From 1989 to 1990, more than 200 clinicians and support staff were engaged in the process of developing a variety of components to the "mental health redesign program." Three simultaneous efforts included developing a method of categorizing patients, restructuring the delivery system and redesigning the benefit. A Mental Health Patient Assessment Tool was created which assists clinicians in performing comprehensive evaluations, administers the benefit, measures progress and supports outcomes research. Delivery system changes included the implementation of self-referral, access standards, intake triage functions by non-clinical staff, program development and an outpatient utilization management function.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed1995

Assessing health plan quality.

Health plan accreditation and report cards represent the beginning of a rapidly evolving information flow that impacts all stakeholders within the health care system. By understanding what information is available--and its limitations--stakeholders can work together to promote improved health plan quality.

Accreditation↗
PubMed2005

Competition and health plan performance: evidence from health maintenance organization insurance markets.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess whether health maintenance organizations (HMOs) operating in competitive markets, or markets with substantial HMO penetration, perform better on the standardized Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS) measures. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a secondary analysis of nonexperimental, cross-sectional data. DATA SOURCES: Data were obtained from a variety of sources, including the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), Interstudy, the Area Resource File, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the U.S. Department of Labor. METHODS: Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause models were used to simultaneously estimate 6 latent quality variables from 35 HEDIS and CAHPS measures and to relate these latent variables to HMO competition and HMO penetration while controlling for other health plan and market characteristics. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Greater competition, as measured by the Herfindahl index, was associated with inferior health plan performance on 3 of 6 quality dimensions. Plans in markets with greater HMO penetration perform better on HEDIS- but not CAHPS-based dimensions of performance. Plans that make their data available publicly perform significantly better on both the HEDIS and CAHPS domains, performing one third to three quarters of a standard deviation better than plans that don't make their results available publicly. CONCLUSIONS: Plans in more competitive markets in 1999 did not achieve better quality after controlling for other important covariates, although plans in markets with a high degree of HMO penetration are performing better on the HEDIS quality dimensions. Although our study design cannot determine causality, the results suggest reason to revisit the belief that competition among HMOs will inherently improve quality.

Catchment Area, Health↗
PubMed2007

External review of health plan denials of mental health services: lessons from Minnesota.

There has been concern that health plans unfairly deny claims for mental health services. This study examines a unique Minnesota program that resulted from a legal settlement. An independent panel reviews all mental health service denials in the state's three largest health plans. Our study analyzed every case file (N = 4717) the panel reviewed from January 2002 to August 2005. This unique dataset provides insight into health plan behavior. The findings show that the panel reversed only 2.9% of denied claims, suggesting inappropriate denials were rare. However, the panel decisions have made important improvements in contract language and patient communications.

Humans↗