Langer Research Associates will lead a webinar with Blue Shield of California Foundation at 12 p.m. Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March 13, to present strategies for safety-net healthcare facilities to navigate the newly competitive marketplace brought about by the Affordable Care Act.

Drawing on a series of statewide surveys of low-income Californians conducted for the Foundation since 2011, we’ll offer key takeaways describing the drivers of patient engagement and satisfaction, including the critical elements of continuity, connectedness and strong patient-provider relationships. We’ll outline 10 concrete steps health centers can take to succeed in attracting, retaining and best serving the needs of low-income patients.

The Bloomberg® Consumer Comfort Index™, a long-running weekly survey of U.S. consumer sentiment produced by Langer Research Associates, is newly available from Langer Research on a subscription basis.

Bloomberg continues to brand the index, cover it in its news reports and distribute CCI data to Bloomberg Professional Service subscribers. Subscription products available directly from Langer Research include our weekly analysis of CCI results, historical data for the index overall and among groups, historical subindex data among groups and respondent-level datasets for advanced analytical purposes.

Additionally, in response to user requests, this spring we will be rebasing the index on a scale 0 to 100, rather than the current -100 to +100. This rebasing, aimed at greater ease of interpretation, will be produced via a simple algorithm and applied retrospectively to all past CCI data.

The Consumer Comfort Index is a continuous, 28-year-old weekly measure of consumer sentiment. Branded by Bloomberg under agreement with Langer Research Associates since 2011, the index is closely followed for its high-frequency measurement of the American public’s economic attitudes, its long-term trend and its concurrent and predictive validity in relation to a variety of other economic indicators. Research indicates the CCI’s potential utility in a range of predictive modeling applications.

Learn more about the CCI here, and for details please contact info@langerresearch.com.

There’s been wide pickup of our latest ABC News/Washington Post poll in outlets (beyond ABC and the Post) including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, PBS NewsHour, NBC, CNN (here and here), The Wall Street Journal, Politico (here and here), Huffington Post (here and here), Time, The Hill, The Wire, The San Francisco Examiner, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Washington Times, the National Journal, and by the inimitable Rush Limbaugh, among others.

Gary Langer appeared on Bloomberg TV’s “Street Smart” today to preview President Obama’s State of the Union address with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt, Douglas Holtz-Eakin of America Action Forum and hosts Trish Regan and Adam Johnson. See how we did… and who needs a haircut… here.

Our latest ABC News/Washington Post poll covers the president’s standings in advance of the State of the Union address, as well as the party’s positions in this midterm election year. See it here.

DRI – The Voice of the Defense Bar has released a national survey of attitudes on the civil justice system produced for the defense attorneys’ association by Langer Research Associates. Among other results, the national, random-sample survey finds that Americans overwhelmingly oppose two common but controversial practices in class-action lawsuits – the automatic enrollment of plaintiffs on an opt-out basis and the use of low-value coupon settlements. Two-thirds also say individuals should be required to show actual harm by a company’s products or actions, rather than only the potential for harm, in order to join a class-action lawsuit. And just half see most class-action suits currently filed in the United States as justified.

See DRI’s news release here, and the full analysis here.

Bloomberg Television viewers were subjected to an hourlong appearance by Gary Langer today on “In the Loop” with Stephanie Ruhle, Adam Johnson and Mike McKee. The wide-ranging conversation included discussion of public opinion on topics including the popularity of Pope Francis, the weather, the JPMorgan/Bernie Madoff settlement, consumer sentiment, presidential approval and what the heck polls are good for, anyway.

Blue Shield of California Foundation today released “Health Care in California: Leveling the Playing Field,” a report by Langer Research Associates focused on practical ways to narrow the difference in healthcare experiences between low- and higher-income Californians.

While a broad gap in healthcare satisfaction exists between these groups, the study finds that it is explained chiefly by the nature of patients’ relationships with their caregivers, not by their income levels. Innovative efforts to enhance patients’ connection and continuity with their care facilities and improve patient-provider relationships thus can attenuate or even eliminate the income gap in care experiences.

The report is the latest in an ongoing series for the Foundation produced by Langer Research since 2011. See the Foundation’s news release here, and the full report here.

Gary Langer participated today in the Evidence Communication Innovation Collaborative convened by the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., as part of its Roundtable on Value & Science-Driven Health Care. Langer presented research sponsored by Blue Shield of California Foundation on patient engagement, shared decision making and the role of patient-provider relationships in primary care redesign. Background here, full BSCF report here, and slides will follow.

The international development nonprofit Counterpart International today released the baseline assessment of its Bangladesh Leadership Development Program, a five-year initiative funded by USAID to enhance citizens’ engagement in democratic processes and community development.

The assessment, produced by Langer Research Associates, includes an extensive review of the relevant literature and detailed measurement of the attitudes, knowledge and capacity of recruited BLDP participants. The research will inform design of the program’s curriculum, serve as the baseline for future assessments of its impacts and help shape Counterpart’s leadership training approaches globally. Key findings include the importance of cultural context, sensitivity toward cultural norms of behavior for women and the impact of these norms on women’s perceptions of their ability to effect change.

The Bangladesh Leadership Development Program Baseline Assessment was designed, managed and analyzed by Langer Research, with field work directed by D3 Systems, Inc., of Vienna, Va., and carried out by Org-Quest Research Ltd. of Dhaka, Bangladesh. See Counterpart’s announcement and the full report here.

Blue Shield of California Foundation today released “Building Better Health Care for Low-Income Californians,” an in-depth survey produced for the Foundation by Langer Research Associates. The study examines the central role of patient-provider relationships in patient empowerment and efficacy, evaluating new approaches – including emerging caregiving models, the use of communication technology and improved interpersonal communication – in achieving these goals.

The Foundation hosted a presentation of key findings and a discussion panel at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Participants included Foundation President and CEO Peter V. Long, PhD.; Kavita Patel, MD, MS, Fellow and Managing Director of Delivery System Reform and Clinical Transformation at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform in the Economics Studies program at the Brookings Institution; Sara Rosenbaum, JD, Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and Founding Chair of the Department of Health Policy, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services; Ron Yee, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer, National Association of Community Health Centers; and Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates.

The survey extends a series of in-depth studies on the healthcare experiences of low-income Californians conducted for the Foundation by Langer Research Associates since 2010. Senior Analyst Julie E. Phelan was lead author of the report. See the full study, executive summary and press release here.