Posted on November 18, 2009 08:51
Topics: Health Care Financing | Private Insurance | Trends
Post Type: report
A TriNet Group Inc. survey found 71 percent of small business owners worry that health care reform legislation will increase their health care costs and 56 percent believe it will cause “unnecessary complexity”. Of those respondents who believe that the legislation will increase cost, 44 percent indicated that they would reduce benefits to recoup their costs while 21 percent said they would first look to cut wages and 20 percent said they would reduce staff.
From the introduction:
In September 2009, TriNet conducted an online survey of businesses primarily in the financial services, professional services, and technology industries. The purpose of the study was to assess issues associated with the current health care program environment. Questionnaires were sent to the Owner/President/CEOs of a selected group of companies. The survey contained 19 questions. Responses were received from 216 companies located in 32 of the 50 United States. There is a good representation based on number of employees: 62.3% have between 1 and 40 employees, 20.5% have 41 to 100 employees, and 17.3% have more than 100 employees.
TriNet Group, Inc. (2009). Summary of TriNet's Q3 HR trends survey.
Full report: http://www.trinet.com/documents/white_papers/TriNet_WP_2009_HRTrends_Q3.pdf
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Posted on November 18, 2009 08:44
Topics: Health Care Financing | Private Insurance | Trends
Post Type: report
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the Urban Institute released a brief examining the variations in health care coverage by congressional district. The brief examines public and private coverage as well as uninsurance, finding that private coverage rates are lowest in districts with higher poverty rates and that uninsurance is highly correlated with low private coverage rates. The brief also identifies the districts that would benefit the most from the increased coverage currently proposed in national health care reform legislation.
From the report:
New data on health insurance coverage from the American Community Survey show extensive variation in rates of private and public coverage and uninsurance across congressional districts in the United States. This survey reveals those districts that face the greatest deficiencies in private coverage and pinpoints the districts where public coverage closes some of the gap left by low rates of private coverage. The picture that emerges is that (1) rates of private coverage are lowest in districts that have higher poverty rates, which tend to be concentrated in the South and West; (2) the needs in these high-poverty districts have led many to have above average rates of public coverage; and (3) despite these higher rates of public coverage, uninsurance remains most serious in districts with low rates of private coverage. This analysis identifies the districts in which residents would have the most to gain from health reforms that are designed to increase health insurance coverage toward a higher and more uniform national standard.
The Urban Institute. (2009). Variation in insurance coverage across Congressional districts: new estimates from 2008. Genevieve Kenney, Victoria Lynch, Stephen Zuckerman, & Samantha Phong.
Full report: http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/411967_variation_in_insurance.pdf
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Posted on November 18, 2009 08:35
Topics: Outcomes | SAMHSA | Substance Use
Post Type: report
SAMHSA released the latest Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) report, finding that the criminal justice system was the single largest source of referrals to substance abuse treatment, accounting for 37 percent of admissions. The report found that criminal justice system referral admissions were less likely than all other referral admissions to drop out of treatment (22 vs.27 percent). In addition, the most rapid area of growth within criminal justice system referrals has been among those younger than 18 years of age, increasing from 38 percent of adolescent admissions in 1992 to 47 percent in 2007.
From the report:
In 2007, the criminal justice system was the largest single source of referrals to the substance abuse treatment system, comprising 37 percent of all admissions in the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) (approximately 670,500 of the 1.8 million admissions). Moreover, the majority of these referrals were from parole and probation offices (44 percent of criminal justice admissions where detailed criminal justice source information is known). Understanding the impact of these admissions on the treatment system is critical for program planners and policy makers at all levels of government. Using TEDS, this report examines substance abuse treatment admissions referred by the criminal justice system and compares their characteristics with admissions referred by other sources.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies. (2009). The treatment episode data set report: substance abuse treatment admissions referred by the criminal justice system.
Full report: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/211/211CJadmits2k9.cfm
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Posted on November 16, 2009 21:04
Topics: Innovation | Outcomes | Substance Use
Post Type: citation
This study, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found that individuals attaining high levels of an anti-cocaine antibody had significantly more cocaine free urine samples than those with lower antibody levels or those taking a placebo. Unlike the antibodies produced by other vaccines, which destroy or disable the disease-causing agent, the cocaine antibodies prevent the drug from passing through the blood brain barrier to inhibit the drugs euphoric effects. The study found that the proportion of subjects having a 50 percent reduction in use was significantly greater in those attaining higher antibody levels than those with lower levels. However, only 38 percent vaccinated subjects attained the high antibody levels and significant effects of the vaccine only lasted 2 months.
Martell, B. A., Orson, F. M., Poling, J. et al. (2009). Cocaine vaccine for the treatment of cocaine dependence in methadone-maintained patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(10), 1116-1123. http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/66/10/1116
Authors: Bridget A. Martell, Frank M. Orson, James Poling, Ellen Mitchell, Roger D. Rossen, Tracie Gardner, Thomas R. Kosten.
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Posted on November 16, 2009 20:56
Topics: Health Care Reform | Insurance | Uninsured
Post Type: report
This report, released by the Center for Rural Affairs and the Center for Community Change, highlights the unique challenges of rural health care. The report notes that rural communities have a lower rate of employer-sponsored insurance because rural economies rely more heavily on small businesses and self-employment. The report also finds that rural areas have twice the rate of underinsurance as urban areas and that rural residents pay 22 percent more for health coverage than those living near metropolitan areas.
Full Report: http://www.communitychange.org/library/CCC-sweet-hivfin.pdf/idea_view
Center for Rural Affairs and Center for Community Change. (2009). Sweet the bitter drought why rural America needs health care reform. Jon Bailey, Sally Kohn & Angie Evans
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Posted on November 16, 2009 20:50
Topics: Health Care Reform | Insurance | Medicaid
Post Type: report
This Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report finds that current health care reform proposals do little to help immigrants, including legal permanent residents. MPI finds that 4.2 million of the 12 million legal immigrants in the U.S. are currently uninsured and notes that many are temporarily barred from state Medicaid programs because of a 1996 law requiring that legal aliens wait five years from the date they obtain their green card before becoming eligible for Medicaid. The report finds that maintaining that restriction and applying it to the government health insurance subsidies for individuals earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) will limit health insurance access for over 1 million legal immigrants. In addition, the report examines the cost implications of limiting health insurance access for both legal and illegal immigrants under various health reform proposals.
Full Report: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/healthcare-Oct09.pdf
Migration Policy Institute. (2009). Immigrants and health care reform what's really at stake? Randy Capps, Marc R. Rosenblum, Michael Fix.
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