Description: This interview provides information on Retirement Health and Happiness, the first in a new series of publications designed to improve retirement literacy.

Description: A proposal to address provider payment issues by gradually moving to accountable care organizations. Capitations would be risk-adjusted, non-capitated costs would be covered by hospitalization fund and stoploss, incentives for quality & effective preventive care would be tied to the amount remaining in the fund, and government involvement would be through incentives rather than mandate.

Description: Rhode Island’s unique “global Medicaid waiver” pursues a potentially dangerous national policy trend: long-term care LTC rebalancing without strong eligibility controls. Resulting cost overruns could seriously damage the state’s social safety net. To maximize the global waiver’s opportunity, minimize its danger, and become a LTC financing model for the country, policy makers need to recognize the issues discussed in this report and pursue the recommended additional research and analysis.

Description: Recently, the SCAN Foundation, AARP, LeadingAge, and HHS funded economic modeling conducted by Milliman and the Urban Institute around LTC reform elements. The LTC industry has over the years also generated ideas to address the on-coming expansion of LTC needs in the U.S. For this article, we have brought together three individuals who have long involvement with LTC financing to discuss some of the recent ideas and provide some perspectives on their pluses and minuses.

Description: A proposal to reform the health care provider payment system through: a national fee schedule, shifting more reimbursements to primary care providers, better integration of hospital & physician fees, evidence based care, pay for performance, and a better provider risk sharing mechanism.