The business adage "what gets measured gets managed" applies in health care. Two projects focus on measuring and improving the patient experience in community clinics.

This free guide, in Spanish and English, is for people looking for basic information on health insurance, nutrition, and other public programs, as well as for health care workers and community-based organizations in their outreach efforts.

On hospital quality, what do consumers want? This report reviews their perceptions of clinical effectiveness, patient safety, and efficiency and whether consumers have a role in driving improvement.

The Internet is a critical tool for gathering health information. A survey finds 80% of Internet users look online for health information, making it the third most popular online pursuit following email and using a search engine.

Many California medical groups, IPAs, and safety-net organizations have been working on ways to improve the patient experience. The strategies and insights of a number of these ambulatory care organizations are described in this paper.

Can price transparency control spiraling hospital costs? Maybe, says CHCF's Maribeth Shannon in a commentary for Modern Healthcare, though market conditions and benefit design may matter more.

This Health Affairs article by Carman et al. finds consumers hold crucial misconceptions about evidence-based health care and most believe that more care means better care.

Small and user-friendly, smartphones are quickly being adopted by consumers and providers, who have a large and growing array of health-related applications to choose from.

This snapshot provides highlights from a survey of California adults with chronic conditions.

This study explores how to improve health care services for low-income workers. The study asks consumers how important a service is versus how satisfied they are in that same area, and looks for gaps where a market opportunity might exist.

This snapshot suggests that increasingly, Californians are trying to control medical costs by neglecting care and asking for cheaper medications, leading to more hospitalizations and emergency department use.

Comparing individual health insurance plans is so confusing that many people remain uninsured. This issue brief reports the findings of CHCF-commissioned consumer testing of a standardized format—similar to a nutrition label—that allows shoppers to compare plan benefits, costs, and value.

Surveys suggest that three out of four patients want some sort of online connection with their medical providers. This report examines how patient-oriented HIT is evolving by looking at clinical settings in five regions, including California.

This snapshot looks at consumer use of the Internet as a source of health and ratings information. Overall, although many look for information, few take action based on what they have seen.

This iHealth Report takes a close look at social media, who uses it and why, what its impact is on the health of consumers, and how health care organizations can take advantage of its uses to manage the care of their populations.