Health Insurance Enrollment Decisions, Health Plan Performance and Access to Care in Latest INQUIRY Journal

ROCHESTER, NY (09/08/2008)(readMedia)-- Summaries of articles from the latest issue of INQUIRY journal:

"Health Insurance Enrollment Decisions, Preferences for Coverage, Worker Sorting, and Insurance Take-Up" by Alan C. Monheit and Jessica Primoff Vistnes - This study finds that, compared to workers who strongly value health insurance, single workers with weak or uncertain preferences for health insurance are more likely to be uninsured, and less likely to enroll when coverage is offered. The results suggest that a strategy to expand coverage include both subsidies and educational efforts that focus on the value of having health insurance.

"Health Plan Performance Measurement: Does It Affect Quality of Care for Medicare Managed Care Enrollees?" by M. Kate Bundorf, Kavita Choudhry, and Laurence Baker - This study found that implementing health plan "report cards" in Medicare managed care increased service use among both managed care and fee-for-service beneficiaries. However, there was no evidence that performance measurement improved quality of care for Medicare managed care enrollees.

"Health Insurance and Access to Care among Welfare Leavers," by Sheldon Danziger, Matthew M. Davis, Sean Orzol, and Harold A. Pollack -- This paper reports that about 25 percent of former recipients of cash assistance were uninsured six years after welfare reform, and that affording medical and dental visits was a hardship for welfare leavers without health coverage.

"Health Supervision Visits among SSI-Eligible Children in the D.C. Medicaid Program: A Comparison of Enrollees in Fee-for-Service and Partially Capitated Managed Care," by Jean M. Mitchell, Darrell J. Gaskin, and Chahira Kozma - Findings from this study show that disabled children eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and enrolled in a partially capitated managed care plan in Washington, D.C., are significantly more likely to be in compliance with health supervision visit guidelines set by the American Academy of Pediatrics than their FFS counterparts.

"Association of Market, Operational, and Financial Factors with Nonprofit Hospitals' Capital Investment," by Tai Hyun Kim and Michael J. McCue - This analysis found liquidity---the availability of internal funds---to be a critical factor in capital investment for both urban and rural hospitals. Increased cash flow was associated with changes in urban hospitals' capital investment, and growth in the over-65 population led to more capital investment for rural hospitals.

"Variation in Patients' Hospice Costs," by Haiden A. Huskamp, Joseph P. Newhouse, Jessica Cafarella Norcini, and Nancy L. Keating - Examining one Northeast United States hospice, this study found that average per day costs decreased as a patient's length of hospice stay increased. Costs per day were lower for nursing home residents than for nonresidents.

Other features in Volume 45, Number 2:

The McNerney Forum-"Health Care Coalitions: From Joint Purchasing to Local Health Reform" by Joseph A. Camillus and Meredith B. Rosenthal - This paper discusses some of the efforts achieved by business and health coalitions: pooling regional health care data, promoting public reporting of quality and cost information, and coordinating pay-for-performance initiatives (open access article available).

"The View from Here: Medical Indebtedness, Financial Insecurity, and Health---Time for a Government Bailout? -- In this column, INQUIRY Editor Alan Monheit argues that people who experience health shocks and medical indebtedness deserve the same consideration for government assistance as financial institutions that fail because of irresponsible behavior (open access article available).

INQUIRY is a peer-reviewed scholarly publication. Now in its 45th year, it is published quarterly by Excellus Health Plan, Inc. Press releases and open access articles are available at www.inquiryjournal.org

-30-