November 2, 2009 - A vast majority of leaders in health care and health policy believe Medicare has been successful in providing access to care and stable coverage to the elderly and disabled individuals; however only a small percentage think the program has realized its potential to achieve other important goals, like using its leverage as the country's largest purchaser of services to control costs and promote a high performance health system.
July 21, 2008 - Adequate financing for long-term care, improving the quality of long term care services, and developing an adequate, skilled workforce are some of the urgent challenges facing long-term care in the future, say four of five respondents to the latest Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey.
September 11, 2007 - September 11, 2007—In metropolitan areas across the United States, blacks are more likely than whites to live in poor quality nursing homes, according to a new study in the September/October issue of Health Affairs.
February 24, 2006 - A new study points to great potential for the new Medicare drug benefit to provide assistance to the estimated one-fifth of the nation's nursing home population without drug coverage.
December 29, 2005 - Financing the nation's long-term care needs should be a responsibility shared equally by government and individuals, agrees a majority of respondents (61%) to the latest Commonwealth Fund Health Care Opinion Leaders survey. A wide majority—80 percent—of the 246 respondents to the online survey also favors adding a long-term care benefit to Medicare, financed by a premium, to address the growing cost of such services.
April 19, 2005 - Four in 10 seniors tell researchers they haven't taken all the drugs their doctors prescribed in the past year—either because cost was too high, they didn't think the drugs were helping, or they didn't think they needed them, according to a new survey.
August 16, 2002 - A coalition of eleven nursing homes stabilized staff turnover and eliminated serious quality deficiencies on state inspections, all without additional cost, according to an evaluation of the Wellspring quality improvement method sponsored by The Commonwealth Fund.
December 5, 2000 - Seniors today find themselves facing myriad options about their own health care, including choices about long-term health insurance, Medicaid, home health care, assisted living and nursing homes.
June 7, 2000 - At least a third of the 1.6 million nursing home residents in the United States may suffer from malnutrition or dehydration, conditions that can aggravate or cause more severe medical problems such as tooth decay, broken bones, anemia, and low blood pressure—or in some cases even death—according to a new study supported by The Commonwealth Fund.