CCEHI Releases Consumer Policy Platform for Health System Transformation

In the months surrounding the inauguration of the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation, Community Catalyst published a series of posts on its HealthPolicyHub blog that expanded upon the six policy priorities the Center will follow in pursuing its mission of making our health system one that is truly people-centered. This series has been compiled and adapted into a new resource – A Consumer Policy Platform for Health System Transformation – that frames the work ahead and lays out the Center’s policy priorities, with a focus on charting next steps for advocates, policymakers and other stakeholders.

How States Can Take the Lead on Health System Transformation

The Center for American Progress has developed a report that delineates how states can make progress on implementing cost control and quality improvement health care programs, even within the context of Congressional inaction. The report identifies over a dozen innovations and provides examples of how different states are pursuing each of those reforms. 

New Tools for Examining Health Disparities

Just in time for Minority Health Month, those interested in reducing health disparities now have two new tools in their toolbox. First, the CMS Office of Minority Health recently released the Mapping Medicare Disparities (MMD) tool which is an interactive map that displays differences in chronic disease prevalence and outcomes among Medicare beneficiaries. Users can compare outcomes between counties, racial and ethnic groups, and make comparisons to national and state averages. More details on this innovative tool can be found in a Community Catalyst blog post.

Second, the Health Inequality Project recently released new data on life expectancy and income which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and highlighted in a recent New York Times article that also uses the data in an interactive map. The findings show that within comparable low-income demographic groups, life expectancy varies widely by region and city within the United States.