Live Broadcast: RWJF Commission to Announce New Recommendations

"On Monday, Jan. 13, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America will issue new recommendation aimed at improving health now and for generations to come.   The recommendations and new report from a nonpartisan, diverse group of national experts and thought leaders, including Anne Warhover, president and CEO of the Colorado Health Foundation, will highlight the need to:

• Prioritize investments in America’s youngest children,
• Encourage leaders in different sectors to work together to create communities where healthy decisions are possible, and
• Challenge health professionals and health care institutions to expand their focus from treating illness to helping people live healthy lives.

Register for the Jan. 13 live online event.”  [Source:  The Colorado Health Foundation]

Aligning Forces for Quality

"Aligning Forces for Quality is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) signature effort to lift the overall quality of health care in targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care and provide models for national reform. Learn more at: http://forces4quality.org" [Source: CCI Voice]

Six Steps to Reduce Disparities in Health Care

Want to jumpstart your organization’s efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care in 2013? Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change offers three new resources that can help your project gain momentum this year.

• See the Roadmap to Reducing Disparities Infographic
• Access the FAIR Database (a comprehensive collection of summaries and systematic reviews of racial and ethnic health disparities intervention literature)
• Follow @FndgAnswers in January and receive a month of tips, tools, and updates on the latest developments in disparities research, ACA implementation as it relates to disparities, and easy-to-adapt intervention models.

[Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]

Survey Finds One in Five Juggling Medical Bills

A recent survey from the Center for Studying Health System Change and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that one in five Americans reported trouble paying medical bills in 2010. The medical debt averaged around $6,500, and more than 17 percent of people with medical debt said it would take longer than five years to pay off. Click here to read more.

Check Out County Health Rankings

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have published online a new set of reports that compare health factors and health outcomes in counties within each state. The rankings use data from vital statistics and government health surveys. Visit the website to learn more.

Sharing an Exchange

New Issue Brief Examines Multi-State Health Insurance Exchanges
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) permits two or more states to work together to create a multi-state health insurance exchange. A new issue brief funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and written by the Urban Institute’s Linda Blumberg examines why states might form multi-state exchanges and the issues raised by doing so.

Analyzing ACA

A new report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation estimates the effects the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have on how people get their health insurance, the number of people who will still have no insurance and America’s overall spending on health care. The report, written by Urban Institute researchers, uses the Institute’s Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) to predict results as if ACA were fully implemented in 2010 and contrasts those outcomes with HIPSM’s estimates for how these factors would look in 2010 without reform.