Health Care Costs Accountability

Our experience in Vermont highlights both the strengths and the limitations of evaluating efficiency using standard measures of expenses and revenue. More

This report describes how states can focus affordability efforts to impact highly resourced hospitals and health systems (the haves) without endangering those that would struggle to implement state commercial market affordability policies (the have-nots). It also provides options to help states identify hospitals within each group, using existing public analyses and state data where available.  More

This brief provides an overview of existing state, federal, and private sector hospital efficiency measures; the advantages and limitations of those measures; potential modifications to existing measures; and options for how states can employ new or existing measures to better understand current hospital efficiency levels and incentivize improved efficiency. More

Introduction  Policymakers across the political spectrum have long recognized the widespread and growing burdens posed by high and rising… More

This document describes the hospital-specific market basket methodology, which states can use to calculate hospital performance against the hospital price growth target. The Peterson-Milbank Program for Sustainable Health Care Costs funded the development of code that can be used to perform this analysis using state all-payer claims data. The document also includes key design and implementation considerations for states pursuing a hospital price growth target. More

Unsustainable increases in health care costs are leading to high rates of medical debt, sapping the vitality of small businesses, straining state budgets, and dampening wage growth. States have the power to help reduce health care costs, and several are pursuing policies to do so. More

This brief outlines seven potential strategies to address high and rapidly rising hospital prices, accompanied by examples from states that have successfully implemented these approaches. More

This spring, Delaware took a bold step to mitigate hospital spending growth. HB 350, signed into law in June, creates the Diamond State Hospital Cost… More