A new series of International Innovations profiles approaches to solving shared health system challenges. These include:
- Expanding access to after-hours care through cooperative or regional models, as has been done in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany.
- Bundling payments to promote integration and efficiency, as is happening in the Netherlands and Germany as well as in a Medicare pilot in the U.S.
- Using comparative effectiveness research to inform policymaking in the U.K., France, Germany, and Australia.
- Promoting quality care through pay-for-performance incentives in the U.K., Australia, Germany, and the U.S.
A new issue brief by David Squires, senior research associate in the Fund’s international program, explains high health care spending in the U.S. compared with other countries.
D. A. Squires, Explaining High Health Care Spending in the United States: An International Comparison of Supply, Utilization, Prices, and Quality, The Commonwealth Fund, May 2012.
The Commonwealth Fund–supported research of Naoki Ikegami and Gerard Anderson found that Japan has been able to maintain access to care and avoid rationing while also taking advantage of the latest medical technology by applying a standardized fee schedule for nearly all health care goods and services and by combining hospital and physician fees.