How States with Health Care Cost Growth Targets Are Using Their Data to Develop Bold New Policy Approaches to Constrain Spending

In a new Health Affairs Forefront article, Michael Bailit, January Angeles, and Rachel Block show how states with health care cost growth targets have built the data infrastructure, analytical capacity, and public accountability mechanisms needed to understand where spending is growing and why. Before these programs existed, little effort was devoted to systematically monitoring or attempting to address health care costs in the commercial market.

Several of these states, and others, are now leveraging their health care cost data to move toward bold new hospital- and pharmacy-focused approaches to constrain spending growth, especially in the commercial market.

“These initiatives represent a fundamental shift in how states exercise their authority over health care markets,” the authors say.