Policy and Legislation

President Barack Obama has announced regional forums, patterned after the healthcare reform summit held last week at the White House, to be hosted by the governors of California, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Vermont in March or early April.

Gov. Jim Doyle (D-Wis.) discusses Wisconsin's initiatives in stem cell research in this video, posted to YouTube by user DemocraticGovernors.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.), a potential pick for the open HHS post in Obama's administration, discusses children's health insurance in this video posted on YouTube by DemocraticGovernors.

In his keynote speech at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 20th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care in December 2008, former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, MD, suggested we rebuild the US healthcare system using the objectives of IHI's Triple Aim.

Medicare programs designed to boost the care of chronically ill patients while reducing hospital admissions and saving costs have largely failed, a new government-contracted study concludes.

In this video, posted by Lucile Packard Children's Hospital on YouTube, Lisa Chamberlain, MD, discusses children's healthcare issues facing the Obama administration and the importance of issues such as SCHIP.

At the beginning of the year, Mass. Governor Deval Patrick convened a panel to examine the agreement between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachsetts and Partners, the umbrella organization of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, to determine whether the relationship was driving up healthcare costs, “making it harder to extend healthcare insurance to all residents.”

HCA Inc. entered a new phase last month, becoming a privately held company on November 16 after shareholders approved one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history.As part of the buyout, sh...