The Foundation monitors how health system financing and delivery affects access to care by exploring the financial and structural incentives for care delivery, health-related spending by consumers, providers, and payers, quality of care, and provider workforce capacity. Much of our work explores these issues within health systems serving low-income individuals and families and how these factors may have changed in concert with/as a result of health reform. These projects inform our understanding of vulnerabilities/gaps within the Massachusetts health system and propose solutions to realign the system to meet the needs of consumers, providers, and payers.

Related Publications

• National Health Care Reform And Its Impact on Massachusetts
  November 03, 2009
  This analysis, conducted by the University of Massachusetts Center for Health Law and Economics, outlines the potential impact a national health reform bill may have on Massachusetts, including key areas that bear further monitoring.
• Who Seeks Emergency Care And Why?: Data From Massachusetts
  September 24, 2009
  This policy brief based on data from the 2008 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey shows that while health reform in Massachusetts has succeeded in increasing health insurance coverage and access to care, use of emergency departments by working-age residents remains high. Those seeking care in EDs may have trouble accessing care in other settings. They are less likely to use a doctor’s office or private clinic as their usual source of care and they are somewhat less likely to report having a place they usually go to (other than the ED) when they are sick or need advice about their health. And frequent users of emergency rooms (those reporting more than three ED visits in a year) are a sicker, more disabled and chronically ill population than other adults in the state.
• Testimony On Health Care Affordability For the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing By The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation
  June 24, 2009
  The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation was invited by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing to offer testimony on the affordability of health care. Foundation Director of Policy and Research Shanna Shulman, Ph.D. offered the following testimony.
• Testimony On Health Care Disparities For the Joint Committee On Public Health By The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation
  June 09, 2009
  The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation was invited by the Joint Committee on Public Health to offer testimony about health care disparities. Foundation President Jarrett T. Barrios and Foundation Associate Director of Grantmaking and Evaluation Miriam Messinger offered the following findings from the Foundation's policy research and grantmaking programs.
• Access To Health Care In Massachusetts: The Landscape In 2009. Presentation by John Snow, Inc. at 2009 Summit on Access.
  May 28, 2009
  Presentation made by John Snow, Inc. at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation's annual Summit on Access May 28, 2009. The presentation summarizes a year of investigation into barriers to health care access that consisted of a literature review, focus groups, interviews with health access experts, and a survey of the newly-insured. This research is part of the Foundation's Care Beyond Coverage policy initiative.
• An Update on Health Reform In Massachusetts As Of Fall 2008: Access To and Affordability of Health Care. Presentation by Sharon K. Long, Ph.D. at the 2009 Summit on Access.
  May 28, 2009
  Presentation made by Sharon Long of The Urban Institute at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation's annual Summit on Access May 28, 2009. The presentation summarizes the results of the third annual Massachusetts Health Reform Survey.
• Network Adequacy in the Commonwealth Care Program
  April 22, 2009
• Shared Responsibility, Government, Business, and Individuals: Who Pays What for Health Reform?
  April 14, 2009
  This report is the first assessment of how spending to insure hundreds of thousands of additional people in the Commonwealth is being shared. It finds that the overall distribution of spending on health insurance by employers, individuals, and government remained essentially the same between 2005, one year before passage of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law, and 2007, one year into the law’s implementation.
• Health Reform: Lessons from the Massachusetts Experience
  December 12, 2008
  This report summarizes the impact of health reform thus far and may be used as a point of reference for policy makers who are considering approaches to health reform elsewhere at either the state or national level. If the Massachusetts model continues to work, all or part of this model and its supporting principles may be useful in local or national health reform efforts.
• How Have Employers Responded To Health Reform In Massachusetts? Employees’ Views At The End Of One Year
  October 28, 2008
  This policy brief uses data from surveys of working-age adults to provide an assessment of employers’ responses to the reforms enacted under the Massachusetts health reform law from the perspective of their employees.
• Massachusetts Health Reform: A Public Perspective From Debate Through Implementation
  October 28, 2008
  An examination of public opinion in Massachusetts toward health reform from 2003 through 2008.
• After The Mandates: Massachusetts Employers Continue To Support Health Reform As More Firms Offer Coverage
  October 28, 2008
  An examination of employers' responses to the implementation of the Massachusetts health reform law and whether or not "crowd out" has occured.
• Who Gained the Most Under Health Reform in Massachusetts?
  October 01, 2008
  An eight-page issue brief that analyzes the impacts of health reform on insurance coverage across different population groups in the state. Specifically, it examines differences in insurance coverage by demographic characteristics (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, and gender), health status, employment, and geography.
• From Outreach and Enrollment to Continuity of Care
  October 01, 2008
  A summary of the impact of the Foundation's Connecting Consumers with Care grant program area from 2001 through 2008, and the work that outreach and enrollment workers perform.
• The Impact of Health Reform on Underinsurance in Massachusetts: Do the insured have adequate protection?
  October 01, 2008
  A 10-page issue brief that assesses the extent to which the insurance provided in Massachusetts under health reform in 2007 protects individuals from financial risk in the event of a major illness or injury.