Organizations and websites:
National Institute on Health Policy – At St. Thomas University, (campuses in St Paul and Minneapolis, MN)  Directed by Former Senator David Durenberger. NIHP published a major paper in January 2005 on impact of the Medicare Modernization Act on the upper Midwest.

Medicare Rights Center  MRC – Major consumer resource on Medicare and the Medicare Modernization Act. MRC has offices in New York and Washington. Modernization act. Includes email newsletter. Howard Gouchberg, co-chair of the MJC, serves as their Midwest Advisory Chairperson. 

Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School – The Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS) at Dartmouth, established in 1989, is a locus of scientists and clinician-scholars from Dartmouth's medical and graduate schools who conduct cutting edge research on critical medical and health issues with the goal of measuring, organizing, and improving the health care system.
Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care - The Atlas project brings together researchers in diverse disciplines - including epidemiology, economics, and statistics - and focuses on the accurate description of how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States.

Institute on Health Care Improvement  - The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a not-for-profit organization driving the improvement of health by advancing the quality and value of health care. Founded in 1991 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, IHI offers comprehensive products and services.

The Commonwealth Fund - The Commonwealth Fund's mission is to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.

Families USA Foundation  - Families USA is a national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Working at the national, state, and community levels, Families USA has earned a national reputation as an effective voice for health care consumers for over 20 years.

MedPAC – Medicare Professional Advisory Comission  - The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is an independent federal body established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to advise the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program. The Commission's statutory mandate is quite broad: In addition to advising the Congress on payments to private health plans participating in Medicare and providers in Medicare's traditional fee-for-service program, MedPAC is also tasked with analyzing access to care, quality of care, and other issues affecting Medicare. David Durenberger currently serves on the Commission.

• "Bad Practices Net Hospitals More Money": According to the Post, under Medicare's "upside-down" reimbursement system, "hospitals and doctors who order unnecessary tests, provide poor care or even injure patients often receive higher payments than those who provide efficient, high-quality medicine." In addition, the Post reports that there are "striking variations" in the amount Medicare pays for care in different states, and "most high-spending states rank near the bottom in quality of care." For example, Louisiana ranked 50th in quality of care but first in Medicare spending for 2001. Overall, Medicare invests the equivalent of $1 to $2 in improvement and oversight of patient care for every $1,000 it pays to hospitals and other providers, the Post reports (Gaul [1], Washington Post, 7/24).
  
• "Early Deals Set the Stage for Today's Problems": Although Medicare is in "many ways ... one of the federal government's enduring successes," the program's standards of care have failed to keep up with medical innovation, the Post reports. Attempts to update the standards "have often become bogged down in politics and bureaucracy," according to the Post (Gaul [2], Washington Post, 7/24).
  
• "When Geography Influences Treatment Options": Physicians' approaches to treatment options for Medicare beneficiaries vary in different regions of the country and even within states, the Post reports. For example, in Fort Myers, Fla., Medicare beneficiaries underwent spinal surgery at a rate of 6.9 per 1,000 patients in 2001, compared with a rate of 3.2 in Miami, and 4.5 nationally. Medicare reimbursements, patient demand, diagnostic capabilities and physician preference all might play a factor in differing approaches to treatment (Gaul [3], Washington Post, 7/24).