2000 Annual Report

Untitled Document

HSC's New Direction | Mission and Vision

HSC Mission

SC�s mission is to inform policy discussions about how changes in national and local health care markets affect people�s healthcare. HSC collects and analyzes data from those who finance, deliver and receive health care services. HSC provides timely, objective and incisive analyses on health care developments of national significance, thereby enhancing policy makers� capability to improve health and health care.

HSC Vision

SC is committed to becoming the leading health policy research organization devoted to understanding developments in health care markets and communities and the effect on people�s health care.

HSC�s new mission focuses the organization�s purpose and clearly identifies its primary audience�policy makers. The mission statement, coupled with HSC�s vision, has already guided HSC leaders and staff as they map out a research agenda and make data collection design decisions.

The most important HSC strategic planning goals are as follows:

Establish key policy research areas and provide both narrow analyses and broader syntheses of relevant topics.
- Private insurance coverage
- Access to care for the uninsured
- Managed care and markets
Make HSC�s rich and varied data� already widely available to researchers� more accessible to policy makers and the news media.
Manage research planning and dissemination of findings strategically to have maximum impact on health policy.

HSC�s areas of research focus are critical to health policy discussions and speak to HSC�s strengths in terms of staff knowledge about local markets and the private sector and the organization�s qualitative and quantitative trend data at the national and market levels.

While HSC expects its three broad policy areas to remain a focus long into the future, specific research topics will change, depending on the market and policy environment. Given HSC�s vantage point on the cutting edge of market changes, HSC can identify important trends and anticipate future policy issues. HSC also will leverage ongoing relationships with external stakeholders and researchers, including those at MPR, its sister organization, to identify gaps in knowledge and information and to stay abreast of current policy thinking.

HSC is well suited to inform policy making in the early stages, as issues emerge and policy makers try to understand underlying market dynamics. In the past, HSC has provided early warnings about emerging problems, assessed the extent of problems, busted myths�often fueled by anecdote�and filled in important missing links about specific issues. For example, HSC research debunked the notion that plan choice was diminishing and drew policy makers� attention to the fact that 20 percent of the uninsured have access to employer-sponsored coverage.

An explanation of each research policy area follows, along with examples of recent, current and planned analyses for illustrative purposes.

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