Despite some enrollment losses, most California health plans still turned a profit in 2010. This annual CHCF Almanac report looks at market share, financial performance, and consumer satisfaction.

This interactive graphic looks at enrollment rates in health plans and public programs, provides an illuminating history of the many plan mergers in the state since 1985, and offers a timeline of major milestones in California insurance history since the 1920s.

This Health Affairs article by Weeks et al. describes a two-year study of 741,448 patients that found that large multispecialty medical groups offer better quality and bigger savings than small group practices.

This Almanac report on Medicare in California examines demographics, health status, insurance coverage, quality of care, utilization, and spending, and provides a framework to better understand current and anticipated trends.

This issue brief provides an overview of the Medi-Cal outpatient prescription drug benefit program, summarizes the impact of Medicare Part D on drug utilization and spending by Medi-Cal beneficiaries, and considers Medi-Cal's approaches to managing drug costs.

This issue brief looks at research on public and industry acceptance of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) in coverage decisions. CEA is a method for weighing the value of different health care interventions to find the "best bang for the buck."

A Health Affairs Web Exclusive finds that the increase in MRI availability results in higher use and more surgeries in Medicare patients with low back pain despite questions about the MRI's usefulness in diagnosing the cause of the pain.

This multi-stakeholder initiative examined 15 evidence-based quality measures, investigating how California physicians stack up against benchmarks and whether care provided to Medicare beneficiaries varies versus other payers.

This presentation examines key elements of the Medicare drug benefit to provide a portrait of the program's implementation in California and to highlight important changes for 2009.

This issue brief finds that Californians with comparable medical conditions often get different amounts of hospital care, depending on the type of insurance they carry and the region where they live.

This fact sheet examines the variations among the Medicare drug benefit plans available to low-income beneficiaries in 2008, including premium subsidies, availability of brand-name drugs versus generics, and coverage for the 100 most commonly used drugs.

This Health Affairs article by Baker, Fisher, and Wennberg on a study of variations across California hospitals in hospital resource use for chronically ill patients covered by Medicare HMOs and private insurers found substantial variation in all of the coverage groups studied.

This fact sheet provides a first look at changes to Medicare Part D offerings in California for 2008. It examines changes in the number of participating plans, benefits, premiums, and cost sharing.

This report shows how Californians' end-of-life care differs by race and ethnicity. It identifies gaps in providing culturally sensitive services and offers recommendations for change.

This report provides an overview of home health care in California from 1996 to 2004. It focuses on agency utilization, quality measures, inspection and investigation results, and payment sources.