peterson milbank

Peterson-Milbank Program for Sustainable Health Care Costs

The Peterson-Milbank Program for Sustainable Health Care Costs supports state-led efforts to make health care more affordable for everyone. Starting with setting a target for reasonable cost increases, states across the country are collecting data on their annual health care spending and analyzing it to find the cost growth drivers. With this information, everyone in the state who has a stake in health care can work together to identify community-wide solutions to improve affordability.

This program is a partnership between the Milbank Memorial Fund and the Peterson Center on Healthcare. Participating states include Connecticut, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. See all state target values and latest performance reports.

  • "To even begin looking at what's happening in health care spending on a state level rather than national is an enormous accomplishment. Washington has different trends, different players, and a different landscape than other states. A state-specific look at the data is critical. "

    Emily Brice, JD

    Deputy Director, Northwest Health Law Advocates, Washington

  • "The health care cost growth benchmark is an important initiative. We have to be concerned with cost growth in health care because we need health care to be sustainable, affordable, and accessible without impacting quality. I believe that everyone feels they have a stake in that outcome, and that they can contribute to the goals of the initiative."

    Joanne Borduas, MSN, MBA

    Chief Executive Officer, Community Health and Wellness Center, Connecticut

  • "The cost growth benchmarking initiative has been thoughtful. I think they’ve tried to be very considered in their approach. They've gotten buy-in from both providers and payers and made it a collaborative effort. It is a step in the right direction."

    Al Charbonneau

    Executive Director, Rhode Island Business Group on Health

Highlights

  • To Transparency and Beyond: Snapshots of States Using Cost Growth Targets to Improve Health Care Affordability

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  • Guides to Hospital Financial Analysis

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  • Video: A State-Led Approach to Improving the Affordability of Health Care

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  • Resource Library

    Resource Types

    Current Topics

    Locations

    Publication

    How Payment Caps Can Reduce Hospital Prices and Spending: Lessons from the Oregon State Employee Plan

    July 2024
    Roslyn C. Murray, Christopher M. Whaley, Erin C. Fuse Brown and Andrew M. Ryan
    Policy Points Abstract The State of Oregon passed legislation in 2017 that prohibits hospitals from charging the state employee plan more than 200% of what Medicare pays for in-network hospital facility services and 185% for out-of-network prices. The law took effect starting in October 2019 and led to reductions in hospital services that generated more […] More

    News Article

    What Legislators Need to Know About Hospitals and Health Care Affordability

    July 2024
    Christine Haran
    Drawing on the Peterson-Milbank hospital financial analysis guides, this slide deck explains how rising hospital spending is driving health care spending growth. It outlines policy options to help contain hospital spending growth, and why understanding the financial health of a state’s health systems should inform policy choices designed to improve the affordability of health care. More

    News Article

    Health Care Spending in Rhode Island Stayed Under Growth Target

    May 2024
    Christine Haran
    Rhode Island met its health care cost growth target in 2022, according to the 2024 health care spending and quality report released by the Office of the Health Insurance Commission (OHIC) at a public hearing earlier this month. More

    Publication

    To Transparency and Beyond: Snapshots of States Using Cost Growth Targets to Improve Health Care Affordability

    May 2024
    Martha Hostetter
    This series of state profiles shows how each state in the Peterson-Milbank program has approached one or two of the cost growth target program implementation activities. More

    Blog Post

    To Adjust or Not to Adjust: Health Care Cost Growth Target States’ Responses to Inflation

    April 2024
    Matthew Reynolds and Alyssa Vangeli
    ver the last few years, health care cost growth target states had to make difficult decisions about whether and how the dramatic increase in inflation should impact existing cost growth target values and/or the process and methodology for setting new cost growth target values. More

    News Article

    State Health Care Cost Growth Target Values & Performance Reports

    April 2024
    Michael Bailit
    A table showing state target values for 2024 and beyond, as available. More

    Blog Post

    Collaborating to Spotlight Health Care Cost Drivers and Solutions

    April 2024
    Rachel Block
    Slower systemwide health care spending growth could allow employers to put more dollars into wages or invest it elsewhere. More

    Publication

    Guides to Hospital Financial Analysis

    April 2024
    Nathan Pauly, Lauren Sears, Amy Zhan, Kevin McAvey, Sarah Kinsler, Peter Hayes, Christopher Romero-Gutierrez and Michael Bailit
    A new series of Peterson-Milbank analytics support resources offers insight into how to use publicly available data sources to examine the financial condition of hospitals, as well as identify opportunities to reduce health care spending growth while avoiding any unintended consequences that might result. More

    News Article

    Webinar on Using Hospital Financial Analysis to Inform Policies on Affordability and Access

    March 2024
    Christine Haran
    Join a Peterson-Milbank for Sustainable Health Care Program webinar, Leveraging Hospital Financial Analyses to Inform State Policy, on April 9, 2024, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET, for a look at the forthcoming “Guide to Hospital Financial Analyses,” and a discussion with state leaders who are using this data to inform their understanding of their health care markets and potential policy responses. More

    News Article

    Video: A State-Led Approach to Improving the Affordability of Health Care

    February 2024
    Christine Haran
    This short video explains health care cost growth targets, which set a spending goal that health industry stakeholders commit to in order to identify policies that will make health care more affordable. More