The state has set benchmarks for health care costs -- with a watchdog in the form of the state Health Policy Commission. Here's yesterday's news. The state attorney general’s office and the Department of Public Health on Thursday signaled that they are drafting conditions for the biggest health care merger proposed in Massachusetts in decades, … Continue reading Interested in efforts to control health costs? Pay attention to Massachusetts
Health care costs
In 2017, 96.3 percent of #Massachusetts residents had #healthinsurance. Here’s how they got it.
From the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis: Enrollment Trends monitors health insurance coverage in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where coverage is defined by unique Massachusetts residents with primary medical membership in the 13 largest commercial payers, MassHealth (Medicaid), or Medicare. The August 2018 edition of Enrollment Trends offers insights into changes in health … Continue reading In 2017, 96.3 percent of #Massachusetts residents had #healthinsurance. Here’s how they got it.
KHN: Trump Administration Sinks Teeth Into Paring Down #Drug #Prices
This story notes that CMS approved a Medicaid waiver from Oklahoma in June, but denied a Massachusetts request for a similar exception to existing rules. Oklahoma’s plan would expand that to negotiate additional prescription price reductions based on value-based purchasing agreements. Still, CMS’ recent rejection of a related Massachusetts proposal makes it difficult to believe … Continue reading KHN: Trump Administration Sinks Teeth Into Paring Down #Drug #Prices
Why does Partners cost more than other #Massachusetts #hospitals? Price variation revealed in new report.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts tracks not only what it spends on Medicaid, but total health care spending. Modern Healthcare reports on the variation in care spending recently identified by the in Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. The highest-cost providers in Massachusetts spent nearly a third more per patient than their lowest-cost peers, mirroring the widespread cost variation … Continue reading Why does Partners cost more than other #Massachusetts #hospitals? Price variation revealed in new report.
Boston researcher in NYTimes on why the US spends so much on health care. The answer is same as it was in 2003 — prices.
Austin Frakt, director of the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center at the V.A. Boston Healthcare System writes in The New York Times today: A large part of the answer can be found in the title of a 2003 paper in Health Affairs by the Princeton University health economist Uwe Reinhardt: “It’s the prices, stupid.” He … Continue reading Boston researcher in NYTimes on why the US spends so much on health care. The answer is same as it was in 2003 — prices.
Health Policy Commission versus Partners
Lots of amazing research and care happens at Partners Healthcare, and we pay a bonus for it. Or, as Boston Globe writer Priyanka Dayal McCluskey puts it "Partners has long been criticized for using its power in the health care market to extract higher payments from insurers and driving up health care costs." But, Partners faces scrutiny … Continue reading Health Policy Commission versus Partners
Can hospitals be leaner?@STATnews take you insides the Brigham’s “struggle to cut costs.”
More here. Over the past three months, the Brigham provided STAT un usual access to meetings of its top management and internal deliberations and documents. This inside look shows how one of the nation’s leading hospitals is confronting the daunting financial and marketplace forces buffeting academic medical centers across the U.S. “This wasn’t about ordinary … Continue reading Can hospitals be leaner?@STATnews take you insides the Brigham’s “struggle to cut costs.”
Boston researchers find high #spending on docs doesn’t produce better care
A group of doctors from a range of Boston-area institutions looked at patient outcomes and physician. Their findings were published online via JAMA Internal Medicine. Abstract here. While the substantial variation in health care spending across regions and hospitals is well known, key clinical decisions are ultimately made by physicians. However, the degree to which spending … Continue reading Boston researchers find high #spending on docs doesn’t produce better care
Boston Globe: Sachs, Angell, weigh in on health care reform
Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University is not a health care guy; he's a big picture guy. One in a series of lengthy columns in The Boston Globe offered this: OBAMACARE INCREASED health care coverage but did not solve the crisis of sky-high prices, and may well have exacerbated it by adding government subsidies into a … Continue reading Boston Globe: Sachs, Angell, weigh in on health care reform
Can #Massachusetts tame #health #spending with transparency and oversight?
Stuart Altman, the Brandeis University healthcare economist who has advised presidents from Nixon to Obama, talked to Health Leaders last week. He is now the head of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, which tracks total health spending statewide. HLM: How is Massachusetts trying to address high costs? Altman: First of all, it is the … Continue reading Can #Massachusetts tame #health #spending with transparency and oversight?
Boston Health News 