Sustainable Health Care Costs

In January, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont issued an executive order that requires the state to develop an annual health care cost growth benchmark,… More

The recent settlement of the antitrust lawsuits against the Sutter Health System in California could be a watershed moment in the evolution of US health care markets and public policy, says Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health in a new Milbank blog post. More

To explore what employers and regulators can do about rapidly rising health provider prices and debate the most effective policies, “Los Angeles Times” journalist Noam N. Levey sat down with Dr. Robert Galvin, CEO of Equity Healthcare and an operating partner at Blackstone, and Robert Murray, the former executive director of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. More

In a new JAMA “Viewpoint,” Milbank Memorial Fund President Christopher Koller and Dhruv Khullar, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine summarize the research showing that commercial hospital prices are high relative to Medicare, and that the size of the price discrepancies is increasing. They highlight steps some states and employers are taking to address the issue. More

In a new Milbank blog post, Erin C. Fuse Brown, associate professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law, reports that the research presented at the workshop gave a mixed picture of COPA’s impact on price and quality. The experiences of states highlighted the importance and difficulty of sustaining COPA supervision over the long-term. Nevertheless, COPAs may be an appropriate policy tool in some circumstances, such in rural or semi-rural areas with little competition. More

As the cost of health care continues to rise faster than state revenue, states’ Medicaid commitments undermine their ability to invest in education… More

The Tennessee legislature recently passed a bill that could make it the first state to request a Medicaid block grant. Under a block grant, Tennessee would receive a fixed annual sum from the federal government for its Medicaid program rather than open-ended federal dollars. But John Kitzhaber, MD, former governor of Oregon, and Bruce Goldberg, MD, former director of the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research, say that this approach does nothing to reduce the cost of care and hurts Medicaid recipients. More

New research published by the RAND Corporation earlier this month compares hospital prices paid by private health plans with Medicare prices in 25 states. These new data shed light on hospital prices and point to some actions that states could take to help manage costs. More

Oregon has been a leader in targeting the growth in overall health care costs. In 2012, the state adopted a unique approach to growth limits for the… More

Rhode Island has a history of taking the lead when it comes to health care spending. Beginning in 2010, the state instituted health care… More