2008 Presidential Candidate Health Care Proposals: Side-by-Side Summary, Kaiser Family Foundation: The Foundation has released an interactive tool that compares the health care proposals of presidential candidates by summarizing positions in four overall categories: access to health care coverage, cost containment, improving the quality of care and financing. Users can create customized side-by-side comparisons of up to four candidates, as well as all Democrat or all Republican candidates' health care proposals. The new tool is part of health08, a website operated by the Foundation providing analysis of health policy issues, regular public opinion surveys, and news and video coverage from the campaign trail (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 10/16).

"Is P4P Really FFS," Journal of the American Medical Association: In the JAMA commentary, Walter Wodchis of the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and colleagues discuss pay for performance -- including its effectiveness in improving quality and access -- and the goals, expectations and outcomes of such systems. According to the authors, pay for performance is a modified form of a fee-for-service system and is unlikely to lead to drastic changes in health care efficiency. However, it may be "the best kind of incentive" to improve quality of care, the authors write (Wodchis et al., JAMA, 10/17).

"The GAAP in Quality Measurement and Reporting," JAMA: In the JAMA commentary, Peter Pronovost of the Departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University and colleagues discuss quality-of-care measurement and reporting. The commentary provides suggestions for how the health care industry can ensure that resources spent on quality measurements are used properly to boost patient outcomes and reduce costs (Pronovost et al., JAMA, 10/17).

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