Stable Housing, Stable Health: Addressing Housing Insecurity Through Medicaid Value-Based Payment A HealthWatch brief identifying NYC neighborhoods with high levels of housing insecurity, health care utilization, and Medicaid enrollment. Read the related press release. There is increasing awareness that the …
A Look Back—and Ahead: UHF's 2017 Annual Report UHF's latest annual report highlights our work over the past year to build a more effective health care system for all New Yorkers. It's an interesting time for health policy, and UHF …
As 2018 Open Enrollment Begins, Trump Administration Adds New Challenges for New York's Individual Market Preliminary analysis of how New York would be affected by recent Trump administration actions on the Affordable Care Act, particularly the halt in cost-sharing reduction …
Advancing the Integration of Behavioral Health into Primary Care for Small Practices Moving from theory to real world, a new grant-funded project is testing an innovative “continuum-based framework” that helps small and medium-sized groups of primary care providers integrate behavioral …
The Clinical Quality Fellowship Program: Developing Clinical Quality Leadership in the Greater New York Region The Institute of Medicine has noted that a key factor underlying patient safety problems in the United States is a paucity of quality and safety …
HealthWatch: Medicaid Managed Long-Term Care in New York A HealthWatch brief looking at the ongoing enrollment growth in New York's Medicaid Long-Term Care program, with enrollment figures and a timeline of key policy changes. Since 2012, New York has required …
Rewind: New York State Faces Familiar Issues and New Challenges in the "Repeal and Replace" Era Key provisions in the American Health Care Act-part of the plan by the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal and replace the Affordable Care …
I Can Take Care of Myself!: Patients' Refusals of Home Health Care Services A summary of the discussion and findings of a December 2016 roundtable, co-sponsored by UHF and the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation, on refusals of …
HealthWatch: The Geography of Federal Medicaid Reform HealthWatch brief from UHF's Medicaid Institute showing the broad distribution of New York State's Medicaid population, and how changes to the federal-state Medicaid program would affect New Yorkers. As of March 24, 2017, …
HealthWatch: New York-High-Quality Health Care for Children in Public Coverage A HealthWatch overview of the quality of care children receive through New York's Medicaid and Child Health Plus programs. "In June 2016 nearly 2.6 million children in New York were …
HealthWatch: New York-A National Leader in Public Insurance Coverage for Children A HealthWatch overview of children's health coverage in New York's Medicaid and Child Health Plus programs, with comparison to corresponding national figures. New York Medicaid and Child Health Plus …
Developing a Core Measure Set to Assess Quality and Value of Primary Care in New York State This poster presentation describes the development of a set of quality and value measures for advanced primary care. As part of its work …
Using PROMs in Primary Care: Making the Case and Experience from the Field A presentation at the initial meeting of the PROPC-NY learning collaborative makes the case for the role of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in primary care. A presentation at …
The Big Picture VI: New York's Private and Public Insurance Markets An overview of New York's insurance markets, analyzing enrollment and financial data across health plans and lines of business to create a comprehensive snapshot of the markets since implementation …
Short-Term Rehabilitation Services in an Inpatient Setting This Next Step in Care guide provides need-to-know information about rehab, including types of settings and services, basic facts about paying for rehab, and what patients and family caregivers can expect from the …
Symposium Focuses on High-Performance Health Care Delivery These presentations were featured components of the 2015 Symposium on Health Care Services in New York: Research and Practice, held October 20. Arnold Milstein, MD, MPHIn his October 20 keynote address at the …
Landmark Study Profiles Young Caregivers As many as 1.4 million U.S. children provide care for an adult family member, according to a report from the United Hospital Fund and the National Alliance for Caregiving. As many as 1.4 million U.S. …
After the Reinsurance Is Gone: A New Challenge for New York's Individual Market A Big Picture snapshot report that examines the federal Transitional Reinsurance Program and what might provide premium-stabilizing effects after the program expires in 2016. The Transitional Reinsurance …
The Illusion of Choice: Why Decisions About Post-Acute Care Are Difficult for Patients and Family Caregivers Second in the “Difficult Decisions” series of reports on the many factors that go into hospital discharge planning, with a focus on the experiences …
Making Change Work: UHF's 2013 Annual Report As the Fund continues to engage with health care’s most important issues and their impact on real people, the goal remains clear: to identify opportunities, shape meaningful strategies for improvement, and move from …
Evaluation of a Continuum-Based Behavioral Health Integration Framework Among Small Primary Care Practices in New York State A framework to help primary care practices integrate behavioral health screening and treatment into health care delivery. The related press release can be …
A Model for Improving and Assessing Outpatient Stewardship Initiatives for Acute Respiratory Infections Results from an observational study evaluating the effectiveness of antibiotic stewardship interventions in New York City outpatient settings. Many hospitals have established inpatient antibiotic stewardship programs, but …
Healthier Homes, Healthier Childhoods: How Medicaid Can Address the Housing Conditions Contributing to Pediatric Asthma Focusing on indoor air quality as a key aspect of substandard housing in New York City, this HealthWatch brief identifies neighborhoods that Medicaid providers and …
Grim Times and Health Insurance: Maintaining Coverage During the Pandemic A consumer guide with practical advice on how New Yorkers can replace lost health coverage or find a new health plan during these perilous times. Available in English, Spanish, Simplified …
Preparing for the New Normal If there's one thread that runs through all of UHF's work, it's the knowledge that health care is in an extended period of flux. Our efforts must be more anticipatory, and responsive, than ever. Andrea …
Keeping Patient Engagement Relevant What do we mean when we say "patient engagement"? What related myths can we lay to rest? And how do we ensure that our public debate fosters meaningful implementation? There's general agreement in health policy circles …
Near-Universal Children's Coverage: New York's Threatened Legacy With an uncertain future for Medicaid it is vital to reflect on the efforts behind New York's remarkable, and hard-won, rate of health insurance coverage for its children, and on the planned improvements …
The Historic Promise and Uncertain Future of Medicaid With complex challenges facing the vital safety-net program, Medicaid's future is increasingly uncertain, the director of UHF's Medicaid Institute told the David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium. On January 24, 2018, Chad E. …
Getting Ready for Medicare's New ID Cards: What Providers and Beneficiaries Need to Know and Do New Medicare ID cards, meant to reduce identity theft, require updates to providers' office systems—and some guidance and reassurance for patients. Sometime in the …
UHF’s Suzanne Brundage Testifies About Impact of Opioid Epidemic on Children before NYS Senate Task Force Suzanne Brundage, director of UHF's Children's Health Initiative, testified before a Joint New York State Senate Task Force on Opioids on the impact of …
COVID-19 Deepens Existing Health Disparities COVID-19 is taking a greater toll on disadvantaged New Yorkers who were already at enormous risk to any interruption of work, income, and health. Expanding health care coverage and investing in social safety-net programs are …
COVID-19 Pandemic Perspectives: Will COVID-19 Change the Way We Look at Mental Health and Substance Misuse? At this moment of crisis, the health care system is becoming more responsive to the biopsychosocial needs of essential workers, very ill patients, and …
Can You Provide Pre-existing Condition Protections Without the ACA? It’s Not So Easy Peter Newell, director of UHF’s Health Insurance Project, highlights the numerous ways ACA provisions protect consumers with pre-existing conditions. With a lawsuit seeking the repeal of the …
Health Policy Roundup: Mayoral Candidates Propose Wide Range of Approaches for Improving Health and Health Care in New York City New York City's next mayor will have to address a litany of health policy issues beyond COVID-19, and UHF has …
Extra Coverage Help Under the American Rescue Plan for New Yorkers Who Lost Jobs and Job-Based Insurance A HealthWatch brief examining the ways that the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act will help consumers afford premiums on lost employer-based coverage (COBRA), …
Profiles in Integrated Family Care Profiles of five providers that work in very different settings but all are actively implementing elements of the “Integrated Family Care” model. The related press release can be found here. Integrated Family Care aims to …
Not Sick Does Not Mean Well Every morning, I check the daily stats on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in my area. Like many others, I'm trying to discern patterns: Are the upward or downward trends continuing? Are we peaking …
Pain Points Along the Journey from Skilled Nursing Facility to Home: Patient and Caregiver Perspectives Building on a longstanding commitment to improving care transitions, UHF surveyed patients and family caregivers who had recently experienced a discharge to home from a …
Food Insecurity and Health Care: Addressing Food Insecurity through the Health Care System in New York Quantifying the health impact of food insecurity on New Yorkers--and reviewing potential solutions to alleviate food insecurity's burden on families and individuals. The accompanying …
Medicaid’s Growth: Failure or Success Story? Tony Shih's message from the spring/summer 2022 issue of Blueprint In April, New York State enacted its largest-ever state budget at $220 billion. Health-related expenses were by far the costliest item, including more than …
A Turning Point in the Pandemic and at UHF Oxiris Barbot's message from the fall 2022 issue of Blueprint. As I take the reins of this 143-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to building an effective and equitable health care system for …
A Devastating Report on Teen Mental Health: Many Causes Require Many Responses Adolescence is a time of growth and discovery, but also of disappointments and uncertainty. Teenagers in today's complex world face many more challenges than were common for American …
What Health Systems Can Do About Gun Violence UHF’s Joan Guzik explores how health systems can tackle gun violence with the same level of priority and commitment with which they have confronted other public health problems. One of the key …
The Right Prescription: Assessing Potentially Inappropriate Use of Antibiotics Among New York's Medicaid Population To examine potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in New York State's Medicaid program and aid targeted reduction efforts, this Medicaid Institute brief reviews antibiotic prescriptions for Medicaid …
NYC PHIP Small Practice Project A report from the New York City Population Health Improvement Program examining a shared-services model that could help small practices serve as medical homes and succeed in value-based payment arrangements. Read the related press release. …