Advancing Understanding of Health Care Delivery Using the AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems
Health care delivery systems in the United States are complex and vary greatly across communities, with increasing vertical integration of physicians with hospitals over the last decade. Although better connections between health care providers and organizations have the potential to increase coordination and improve value, research on health system consolidation and its impacts on performance has been limited. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded the Comparative Health System Performance (CHSP) Initiative to identify, classify, and track health systems to accelerate dissemination of evidence-based practices in delivering care.
A key resource created through the CHSP Initiative is the AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems, a publicly available national database with information on 637 U.S. health systems and linkages to system-affiliated hospitals and group practices. Public and private policymakers, health system leaders, and health services researchers can use these data to better understand the structure of diverse health systems and address questions related to costs, quality, and access to care locally and nationally.
Mathematica held a webinar on Tuesday, January 12 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. ET to learn more about the Compendium data and linkage files and how this valuable resource can shed light on important policy questions about health systems. At this webinar, speakers did the following:
- Provided an overview of how to access and use the Compendium data and linkage files
- Highlighted key findings on the landscape and structure of U.S. health systems based on Compendium data
- Showcased how Compendium data can help users understand important policy questions, such as the use of advanced practice clinicians in health systems and health system participation in Medicare Alternative Payment Models
Speakers included:
- Mike Furukawa, AHRQ
- Genna Cohen, Mathematica
- Dave Jones, Mathematica
- Rachel Machta, Mathematica
- Eugene Rich, Mathematica
- Danielle Whicher, Mathematica
