Challenge In the next four years the Executive and Legislative Branches will pick up the recurring question of additional Intelligence Community reform. Did the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 "get it right?", the question goes. Is a sweeping reorganization of the Intelligence Community required to "fix the problem?" Background

After more than two years of blogging on health care reform issues at the IBM Center for The Business of Government, we are continuing the conversation on the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy's website.  Please join our conversation there and read our archived information here on the Center's website.

Today the country faces challenges of unprecedented complexity, from guiding an economy through crisis to expanding healthcare coverage. To meet these and a myriad of other challenges will require transforming the way government works while also inspiring the best and brightest to choose public service.

As John Thomasian, director of the NGA Center for Best Practices told us, “They’ve not just been streamlining government because it’s a luxury but because it was a necessity.” In fact, according to the NGA Center,  in 2009 and 2010, “At least 15 states conducted government wide efficiency reviews to identify areas of state government that can be made more efficient and less costly; at least 18 states have reorganized agencies.”

Not too long ago Ireland was the miracle of the “Celtic Tiger” and briefly the second-richest country in the European Union.  Then came the economic crisis - leaving Ireland’s people in a wrenching recession and the Irish government carrying an intolerably large debt burden.

Dean Kettl and Professor Meyer began writing for the IBM Center for The Business of Government in April 2010 on our blog, "Making Health Care Reform Work." The team, along with Stephen Majors, have written well over 200 posts on this blog and have recently produced short implementation

The Implementation Brief series is based on two key premises:

 USA Today reported this week that Michigan and California will be late in setting up their high-risk pools to cover those with pre-existing conditions. We had already written about how Illinois would be late in setting up the program, which was supposed to be in place across the country by July 1. 

We have written previously on this blog about the importance of a smooth implementation of the new high-risk pool to cover those with pre-existing conditions. The temporary pool serves as a bridge to cover those who haven't been able to get covered until more substantive reforms go into effect in 2014. Expanding coverage in the near term is a big part of trying to sell health reform.

There are numerous cases in the health reform law where Congress decided to give regulators the leeway on the specifics of implementation to achieve the desired policy result. One of the most important examples of this is the impementation of so-called medical loss ratios. The success of the individual insurance market, in this case, will depend on how HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius decides to define the ratio requirement, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2011.