Obama has made quite a few promises regarding Healthcare reform. I agree, that it is a system that is broken and needs to be fixed. Today, I found an interesting website that provides a framework to analyze health care policy effects. It was created by the RAND Corporation and offers some interesting insights to public health care policy. As I play around with the system more, I will offer my own opinions on how it works and what it is good for.

According to the RANDCOMPARE website, it has several purposes:

COMPARE was developed to help public and private decisionmakers systematically assess and compare the effects of different policies across multiple dimensions of health care system performance, encompassing cost, quality, and access. COMPARE gives users a comprehensive framework in which to examine both the intended and unintended effects of changes in health care policy and to examine trade-offs across policies, or across different dimensions of performance for any particular policy (e.g., the effect on spending compared to the effect on insurance coverage or on patient experience).

What Is COMPARE?

COMPARE is a transparent, evidence-based approach to providing information and tools to help policymakers, the media, and other interested parties understand, design, and evaluate health policies.

COMPARE has four objectives:

• Synthesize what is known about the current health care system.
• Describe policy options that have been proposed to address one or more existing challenges.
• Analyze the effects of different health care policy options on multiple dimensions of health system performance.
• Identify gaps in our knowledge about the effects of policy changes.

Rather than constructing specific policy proposals, COMPARE offers objective analyses of policy options currently being used, considered, or discussed by public and private policymakers

Diversified has sponsored Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Program for nearly a decade. Every year in January we begin the hunt for new entrepreneurial companies to honor. Every year I am consistently impressed with the breadth and depth of talent that is found through this program.

The deadline for submitting entries is March 16, 2009. Please help us by contacting me, Kevin (kjessop@digrisk.com), to help us find more great companies to honor through this program. You may also leave contact info in the comments section.

Past program award winners have included Jonathan Coons of 1-800 CONTACTS, Ken Wooley of Extra Space, John Edwards of Move Networks, and Josh James of Omniture. The evening program is a wonderful event to honor some truly great Entrepreneurs in the Intermountain West. This year’s event will be held June 12, 2009.

Employee Benefit Adviser is a good resource for Benefit Industry information. EBA recently interviewed Jeana Hutchings, a principal from Diversified Insurance, and has posted the podcast on their website HERE.

Click the icon to listen in.
Jeana is our Benefits Group Leader and a great resource for all things related to employee benefits.