To inform legislators and other community leaders on relevant issues affecting the healthcare industry, The Center published Issue Briefs on healthcare for many years. These Issue Briefs on healthcare provided member hospitals and the community with timely, accurate and meaningful information on hospital and healthcare policies, practices and procedures. Topics included primary care physician shortage, food insecurity and chronic disease, opioid abuse, patient-centered medical homes, infant mortality, and many more. Browse the list below to view individual Issue Briefs from our archive.
December 2017To improve the health of populations, focusing on clinical care alone is not sufficient. Increasingly, there is a growing recognition that conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, w ...
read moreOctober 2017More and more, hospitals are taking on the role – and being held financially responsible for –
improving the overall health status of their communities. Yet, these efforts are confounded by decades& ...
read moreMarch 2017Primary care is a crucial component of the U.S. healthcare system. Successful management of chronic disease as well as effective preventive care are vital to ensuring good outcomes for patients and controlling ...
read moreOctober 2016The Center for Health Affairs’ November 2016 Issue Brief, Getting to Healthy: Food Insecurity, Nutrition and the Battle Against Chronic Disease, examines the issue of access to nutritious food w ...
read moreAugust 2016The Center for Health Affairs' August 2016 Issue Brief, A Growing Epidemic: Battling Opioid Abuse in Ohio, explores the many facets of the opioid abuse epidemic and discusses the extensive work underway to stem ...
read moreApril 2016The Center for Health Affairs' May 2016 Issue Brief, A Century of Service: Healthcare in Northeast Ohio from 1916 to Today, examines the early days of the Cleveland Hospital Council, major milestones in he ...
read moreJanuary 2016The Center for Health Affairs' February 2016 Issue Brief, Patient-Centered Medical Homes: A Transformation in Primary Care, explains what patient-centered medical homes are, what they are intended to accomplish ...
read moreNovember 2015The Center for Health Affairs' November 2015 Issue Brief, Boosting Community Health Impact: The Vital Role of Collaboration, examines how health needs assessments are shaping local health collaboratives.
Hospit ...
read moreAugust 2015The Affordable Care Act, the national health reform legislation commonly called
Obamacare, was arguably the most influential piece of policy to affect the nation’s
healthcare system in decades. It is best ...
read moreApril 2015The Center’s May 2015 Issue Brief, Infant Mortality in the U.S. & Ohio: A Reflection of Complex Societal Changes examines the problem of infant mortality, including its rates, causes
and disparit ...
read moreJanuary 2015The Center’s February 2015 Issue Brief, Affordable Care Act: What’s Working Well & What’s Not, examines the Affordable Care Act pros and cons and provides an update on how health reform ha ...
read moreNovember 2014Typically when making a purchase, one of the first factors we consider is price. However, when it comes to healthcare, including hospital services, the issue of price tags is a complex matter. Yet, as patients ...
read moreJuly 2014To most effectively address the health needs of the communities they serve, hospitals routinely conduct community health needs assessments (CHNAs) to give them a clearer picture of the health concerns in their ...
read moreMay 2014The Center’s May 2014 Issue Brief takes a look at how emerging technologies in healthcare are changing the practice of medicine in the United States. While Health Information Technology (HIT) – the ...
read moreFebruary 2014The Center’s February 2014 publication, Bracing for the Boomers: Addressing the Healthcare and Workforce Challenges of a Generation, takes a look at how the aging and retirement of the baby boomer ge ...
read moreNovember 2013The Center’s most recent publication, Modern-Day Emergency Departments: Rewriting the Script, discusses recent trends in today’s emergency departments. Specifically, this white paper examines what&r ...
read moreJune 2013The Center’s June 2013 issue brief, Childhood Obesity: Weighing in on a Generation at Risk, highlights current childhood obesity trends, what is driving them and a variety of initiatives and policy soluti ...
read moreMarch 2013The Center’s March 2013 issue brief, Healthcare at the End of Life: A Look at Current Trends,
takes a look at EOL healthcare trends, including the use of palliative and hospice care, advance directives a ...
read moreDecember 2012Medical care has grown increasingly sophisticated, offering ever-more promise of successful treatment and positive outcomes for even some of the most devastating illnesses. Yet, for many patients realizing this ...
read moreAugust 2012Many states, including Ohio, have not yet committed to an exchange strategy despite the nearing deadline. This issue brief, entitled Health Insurance Exchanges: Building an Insurance Marketplace in the Mid ...
read moreMay 2012Patient experience is an area of focus that has become increasingly important to hospital leaders in recent years. Like any industry, hospitals lose customers when the services they provide are not satisfactory ...
read moreMarch 2012Communities, like people, change over time. They age, for example, or the experience other shifts in demographics. And as they change so do their healthcare needs. As a result, the healthcare ...
read moreDecember 2011The role of health insurance in the nation’s healthcare system continues its evolution. In 2010 Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as an attempt, in large part, to correct some ...
read moreSeptember 2011
The growing movement of healthcare consumerism is essentially an answer to the call for greater patient involvement in the healthcare system. The overriding concept behind this movement is nothing new. Hea ...
read moreJune 2011
Behavioral health is just as important to our overall wellbeing as is physical health. Like chronic physical illness, behavioral health disorders, which include both mental illnesses and substance abuse dis ...
read moreMarch 2011
Though there’s no denying the value of Medicaid to the vulnerable populations it serves, this safety net does not come without a cost. Medicaid is a very expensive program, often the largest in a state’s b ...
read moreDecember 2010
Though every nation struggles to balance cost with access and quality, the United States seems to face a particular challenge in getting the cost side of the equation right, spending significantly m ...
read moreSeptember 2010
The national healthcare landscape is changing. Health reform has brought about a transformation that will impact the way that healthcare is delivered, the way it is paid for and the way it is accessed. But ...
read moreJune 2010
The continuum of care encompasses a comprehensive range of healthcare services meant to promote the health of an individual throughout the span of their lifetime. Services along the continuum are plentiful ...
read moreMarch 2010
In increasing numbers, hospitals are joining the ranks of organizations that have made an environmentally focused cultural shift. To be sure, there is no shortage of good reasons for hospitals to embark on ...
read moreDecember 2009
How should people pay for the healthcare services they receive? For those with insurance, the answer is usually pretty easy but for the 46 million uninsured, it is a lot less straightforward. In the past ...
read moreAugust 2009
"Quality” is, no doubt, one of the most prevalent buzzwords when it comes to healthcare. A variety of reports have been published on the subject in recent years, and in the current environment of healthcare ...
read moreJune 2009
Northeast Ohio is a global healthcare hub, drawing patients from across the country and around the world, and paving the way in medical research. And while there are many resources that contribute to the we ...
read moreMarch 2009
Though chronic disease is often thought of in terms of how it is treated medically, the reality is, we may stand to gain the most, in terms of collective health, by implementing successful public health ini ...
read moreDecember 2008
The good news is, if you live in America, you reside in the home of some of the most sophisticated, medically advanced technology in the world. And for most, namely the 84 percent with some form of health i ...
read moreAugust 2008
Every day, hospitals in the United States provide care and services to heal the sick and take care of those in need. It is the job of hospital administrators to ensure that nonprofit hospitals are focused o ...
read moreMay 2008
Providing patient care in a hospital setting seems like a fairly straightforward endeavor. In reality, so many factors play into providing patient care that a trip to the hospital can be overwhelming, espec ...
read moreNovember 2007
As the largest sector of the healthcare workforce, nurses represent a key component of an effective healthcare delivery system. Yet the ability of the healthcare system to perform at peak capacity is threat ...
read moreSeptember 2007
Rising healthcare spending prompted Ohio to begin experimenting with Medicaid managed care over 25 years ago. The managed care market has changed over the years, yet area hospitals’ interests in ensuring Me ...
read moreAugust 2007
CHA has updated one of its most popular issue briefs to reflect the most recently available data on hospital finance. A basic understanding of hospital finance is crucial as leaders continue to create polic ...
read moreJune 2007
With consumers being required to shoulder more responsibility for their healthcare costs, there is growing pressure on providers to simplify prices and billing statements to make them more easily understood ...
read moreJanuary 2007
The shift in the balance of power from Republicans to Democrats in Congress and in the Ohio governor’s mansion may provide a new twist, and perhaps inspire some new approaches, but the familiar issues of co ...
read moreSeptember 2006
The ability to connect with and understand patients is key to caring for them. Shifting demographics are resulting in an increasingly diverse population, which presents new opportunities for effectively and ...
read moreAugust 2006
While manufacturing was once the heart of the region's economy, the decline of that industry is necessitating a fresh look at our local resources and a new strategy for cultivating a robust economy. As the ...
read moreApril 2006
Quality improvement has long been a part of hospitals’ day-to-day operations. It is a cornerstone of every hospital’s mission, and they stake their reputations on their ability to provide quality care. In r ...
read moreAugust 2005
This paper explores the situation regarding healthcare spending, including to what degree it has risen, where the nation’s healthcare dollar is being spent, and what factors have contributed to the increase ...
read moreApril 2005
As Medicaid continues to absorb ever larger portions of both the state and federal budgets, there is growing concern about the future affordability of the program. This paper explains how Medicaid is admini ...
read moreJanuary 2005
Not only are hospitals a staple of the Northeast Ohio economy in terms of employment and the economic activity they generate, the activities associated with their charitable missions also provide vast benef ...
read moreSeptember 2004
This paper explores how healthcare financing, consumer behavior and regulation have influenced the healthcare system, and the role these factors play in the system's ultimate ability to function efficiently ...
read moreAugust 2004
High jury awards, medical liability insurance market instability and subsequent professional liability premium increases are affecting access to physicians in Ohio.
Download the acco ...
read moreApril 2004
This issue brief paints a picture of the uninsured and describes the domino effect of the lack of insurance on individuals, providers and society.
Download the accompanying PowerPoin ...
read moreFebruary 2004
A basic understanding of hospital finance is crucial as leaders continue to create policy that shapes healthcare financing. This 30,000-foot view of hospital finance is intended to shed some light on the co ...
read more