Robert wood johnson foundation: planning for a metamorphosis.

Group purchasing arrangements: issues for states.

Policymakers in several states have introduced legislation to establish GPAs for small businesses. Earlier this year, H.R. 660 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and S. 545 was introduced in the Senate. These bills seek to establish federally regulated association health plans (AHPs; these are one type of GPA). President George W. Bush has actively promoted similar proposals.

ERISA complicates state efforts to improve access to individual insurance for the medically high risk.

Because under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) states cannot directly regulate employeesponsored health plans, ERISA raises multiple issues for states seeking to expand access to individual insurance for people with high-risk medical conditions. The most common approach to financing such access is the creation of “high-risk pools” that permit people who are unable to ...

States' experience with benefit design.

ERISA update: the Supreme Court Texas decision and other recent developments.

This issue brief is part of a continuing series of policy papers published by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Coverage Initiatives program, housed at AcademyHealth, and the National Academy for State Health Policy on the state health policy implications of ERISA's preemption clause.1 The purpose of the brief is to explore the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2004 decision that ERISA preempt...

Health Care Information Technology: A Key to Quality and Cost Issues

Paper medical records still dominate most medical practices. A national survey estimates only 4 percent of physicians have fully functional electronic health records (EHRs) with an additional 13 percent having some basic EHR. 1 However, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) estimates that in 2005, between 17 and 24 percent of physicians in ambulatory care settings were using EHRs to some ex...