Description: The editors of Health Watch have made health care reform the focus of the Sepctember 2009 issue, and provide an introduction to the issue's contents.

Description: Shannon Brownlee shares her perspectives on the current health care crisis, including: inconsistent treatment patterns across providers and geographic regions, providers lacking evidence-based guidelines, the need for better independent clinical research to establish those guidelines, and the limits to consumerism's potential to fix the crisis.

Description: A discussion of issues to consider in selecting and contracting with a PBM.

Description: Discussion and Opinion on how randomness affects measurement of provider contracting risk-sharing agreements

Description: New NCQA Quality Assessment Program for PPOs discussing rationale and performance meansurements, Issue No. 38.

Description: Recap of Q&A sessions held to discuss the findings and methodology of a SOA study on the cost of the newly insured under the ACA.

Description: An overview of the issues behind reimbursing providers on a bundled or packaged basis. The article presents the potential advantages offered by the proponents as well as the criticisms and obstacles to implementing this type of payment system.

Description: Methods and assumptions used in the valuation of savings by external care vendors

Description: This article talks about the challenges facing the FDA, especially those arising from the globalization of the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Description: Review of a research project, co-sponsored by the SOA, which examined 83 organizations and over 150 programs that measure the quality and efficiency of hospitals and physicians.