The creme de le creme health care policy research meeting returns with a big bang, celebrating its quarter century anniversary!
Registration for Academy Health’s 25th Annual Research Meeting (ARM) begins tomorrow, Friday, February 15th. This milestone event will be held at headquarters in Washington, D.C. during June 8-10. Early birds can save $100 prior to April 7th registration.
Not a member? No worries, membership purchase in itself pays for registration and will not cost you a penny more when compared to existing members. Registration fees are tiered by individual, organization affiliate, speaker, fellow, and student. Daily passes are also available.
The preliminary agenda is likely to evolve in the next few months, and quarter century anniversaries are likely to attract a respectable powerhouse of policymakers, researchers, and upcoming movers and shakers.
Plan on arriving/staying a day or two prior to/after the event to meet with interest groups. Meetings announced thus far:
Meeting on Saturday June 7th
Child Health Services
Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues
Public Health Systems Research
State Health Research and Policy
Meeting on Tuesday June 10th
Disability Research
See you there!
Deadline for Academy Health’s 2008-2009 Health Policy Fellowship will creep up on you right after the holidays. So mark your calenders and apply!
January 7, 2008
Deadline for proposal submission
April 1, 2008
Announcement of selected a junior and senior level fellow
Early September 2008
Commencement of fellowships
Essential criteria for application
- Pry analysis and conclusions based on the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data sets.
- Propose relevance and usefulness to health policy or health service research (of course!)
Here is a photo list and associated credentials of past fellows. Guess who is the junior and who is the senior. Their project sound interesting
2002
To Examine How the Effects of Managed Care Market Penetration on Nurse Staffing in Hospitals Affect AMI Patient Mortality
2003
Organizational Determinants of Disparities in Hospital Care
Firms’ Demand for Health Benefit Generosity
2004
Effects of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) on Children’s Health Insurance Coverage, Access to and Utilization of Health Services, and Health Outcomes
2005
Estimating the Effects of Health Insurance on Quality Adjusted Life Years
Depression Symptoms, Poverty, and Single-Parenthood: Effects of Maternal Factors on Children’s Use of Preventive Health Services
2006
Recipients of Work Disability: Who, When, and For How Long?
Trends of Integrating Clinical Preventive Services Into Primary Care
2007
Functional Decline Among the Elderly: The Impact of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act
Hospital Admissions from the Emergency Department: National Trends and Variation Between Hospitals
Good luck!
Blah! I am a month late!
The Commonwealth Fund released a ranking of all fifty U.S. States and the District of Columbia (D.C.) on how the states rank in terms of their health care system. Not surprisingly since Hawaii eked by with an employer mandate, the state ranks #1. After the number one spot, the true #1 spot which is the #2 spot is fair game to those who have to abide under the Federal Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance
1 Hawaii
2 Iowa
3 New Hampshire
4 Vermont
5 Maine
6 Rhode Island
7 Connecticut
8 Massachusetts
9 Wisconsin
10 South Dakota
11 Minnesota
12 Nebraska
13 North Dakota
14 Delaware
15 Pennsylvania
16 Michigan
17 Montana
17 Washington
19 Maryland
20 Kansas
21 Wyoming
22 Kansas
22 New York
24 Ohio
24 Utah
26 Alaska
26 Arizona
26 New Jersey
29 Virginia
30 Idaho
30 North Carolina
32 District of Columbia
33 South Carolina
34 Oregon
35 New Mexico
36 Illinois
37 Missouri
38 Indiana
39 California
40 Tennessee
41 Alabama
42 Georgia
43 Florida
44 West Virginia
45 Kentucky
46 Louisiana
46 Nevada
48 Arkansas
49 Texas
50 Mississippi
50 Oklahoma
The authors documented 32 indicators lumped into 5 performance categories: access, quality, avoidable hospital use & costs, equity, and health lives.
I am immensely disappointed that California is in the same bottom quartile as Texas. For access, quality, and equity California is in the low quartiles. But for healthy lives, the State is in the top quartile. There are just a disproportionate number of healthy people and unhealthy people in the state that skews these rankings. I would focus on access, quality, and equity wherein lies the people who truly need health care.
