Sending and Receiving Health Reform Updates
From the Community Manager: This is the latest in an occasional series that will help you get the most out of your visits to statereforum.org. As the site’s community manager, Elizabeth Cronen anticipates the community’s informational interests, promotes noteworthy content and features, and responds to users’ navigation questions.
State Refor(u)m’s active, collaborative community of users makes it unique as a health policy website. With State Refor(u)m, important health reform information flows in two directions: both from users onto the site, and from the State Refor(u)m team back to the community. With two new features, sharing ideas and receiving information has become even easier.
Updating analytical grids
In many organizations devoted to policy and government issues, research, analysis, and publication are closed, time-limited processes. But on State Refor(u)m, these are collaborative, ongoing efforts with you, the user. In analytical charts like the very popular State Progress on Essential Health Benefits, State Refor(u)m team members capture the comments, documents, and links submitted by users, and compile them in an analytical framework. As users identify additional data to include, they share it with the analysts on NASHP’s State Refor(u)m team. The dialogue continues, and analyses on the site get updated continually. To ease this process, we’ve now added a short description and an email address for sending new information. Keep your eyes on the charts and infographics section of the site to be part of this conversation.
Getting updates on topics you choose
We value users’ contributions, but know that you want to consume information at least as much as you produce it! A new subscription interface has made it easy to mark the health reform categories most relevant to you. You can subscribe to a daily or weekly digest of new content posted in those areas. The new-content digests send you links to all comments and documents new to the site, customized for your interests. To sign up, log in to statereforum.org, and look for the “subscribe” buttons next to the categories on this page.
One click for each category is all it takes.
Are there other ways you think using State Refor(u)m—whether offering or receiving information—could be easier? Let us know in the comments.
For individuals living with complex, often chronic conditions, and their families, palliative care can provide relief from symptoms, improve satisfaction and outcomes, and help address critical mental and spiritual needs during difficult times. Now more than ever, there is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care services for individuals with serious illness, such as advance care planning, pain and symptom management, care coordination, and team-based, multi-disciplinary support. These services can help patients and families cope with the symptoms and stressors of disease, better anticipate and avoid crises, and reduce unnecessary and/or unwanted care. While this model is grounded in evidence that demonstrates improved quality of life, better outcomes, and reduced cost for patients, only a fraction of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it. 
