The Fund supports networks of state health policy decision makers to help identify, inspire, and inform policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund supports two state leadership programs for legislative and executive branch state government officials committed to improving population health.
The Fund identifies and shares policy ideas and analysis to advance state health leadership, strong primary care, and sustainable health care costs.
Keep up with news and updates from the Milbank Memorial Fund. And read the latest blogs from our thought leaders, including Fund President Christopher F. Koller.
The Fund publishes The Milbank Quarterly, as well as reports, issues briefs, and case studies on topics important to health policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund is is a foundation that works to improve population health and health equity.
The Milbank Memorial Fund has published The Milbank Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal of population health and health policy since 1923. It has also commissioned and published reports since early in the last century. Today, the Fund publishes reports, issue briefs, and case studies, as well as blogs, reported articles, and the View from Here. If you would like to suggest a publication idea within our key areas of state health leadership, primary care, or sustainable health care costs, please email Communications Director Christine Haran at charan@milbank.org.
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Report
July 2025 Alyssa Vangeli, Sarah Kinsler,
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
June 2025
Download consensus definitions and methodologies for health care cost driver analyses and cost growth target programs. More
Issue Brief
June 2025 Grace Flaherty, January Angeles,
This issue brief examines how three of these states —Massachusetts, Oregon, and California — have strengthened cost growth target accountability. It also highlights five states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Oregon — that have leveraged their cost growth targets in other health care oversight programs. More
June 2025 Brianna Van Stekelenburg, Rebecca G. Whitaker, Samantha Repka, Emily Proehl, Catie Armstrong, Aparna Higgins, Elizabeth Kasper, Leonard A. Croom, Janelle White, Hilary Campbell, Robert S. Saunders,
Many health providers are interested in making the shift to value-based payment (VBP), as these models can give greater flexibility in providing whole-person care, but administrative burden, variation in payer contracts, and a rapidly changing policy environment can impede their participation and success in these models. Streamlining the administration of payment models and adding supports like data sharing across payers and providers can make it easier for organizations by enabling more flexibility in care delivery, timely access to actionable information, and increased support for the health care workforce. More
Fact Sheet
June 2025 Mary Louise Gilburg, Morgan McDonald,
The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted a virtual session for state legislators and legislative staff to discuss factors contributing to rising health care costs as well as opportunities for states to slow spending growth and make health care more affordable, with a particular focus on hospital costs. The briefing was hosted in partnership with Bailit Health, the technical assistance provider for the Peterson-Milbank Program for Sustainable Healthcare Costs. More
May 2025 Hope Glassberg, Henry Chung, Jordanna Davis, Adam J. Falcone, Alison Gold,
This report offers community health centers, their partners, policymakers, and others a place to start in addressing challenges to implementing value-based payment models, particularly as the safety net faces potential cuts in federal funding for Medicaid. More
Toolkit
May 2025 January Angeles, Erin Taylor,
Introduction Policymakers across the political spectrum have long recognized the widespread and growing burdens posed by high and rising… More
May 2025 Casey Balio, Nicole Galler, Nathan Dockery, Michael Meit,
Abstract The United States ranks below peer nations on many measures of health status, health care access and quality, and health outcomes while… More
May 2025 Sarah Kinsler, Caitlin Otter,
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
April 2025 Hoangmai H. Pham, Wayne Jonas, Mark Smith,
This brief identifies beliefs and common practices in health care culture that the authors suggest have hindered the spread of these models, as well as opportunities for the policymakers and influencers, payers, and clinicians to support whole-person health. More
