Greenbeard
Gold Member
Interesting early results from one of the little state experiments enabled by the ACA.
Maryland's state government has been setting hospital prices for decades but last year they kicked it up a notch, using authority in the ACA to essentially put their state's hospitals on budgets.
Here's an article from last year looking at what Maryland has started doing and how it's changed the game: Global budgets pushing Maryland hospitals to target population health.
Now the state's hospital association is out with a preliminary look at the results in the first year and they're promising: Hospitals save $100 million in Medicare costs
An unusual approach but one to keep an eye on.
Maryland's state government has been setting hospital prices for decades but last year they kicked it up a notch, using authority in the ACA to essentially put their state's hospitals on budgets.
Here's an article from last year looking at what Maryland has started doing and how it's changed the game: Global budgets pushing Maryland hospitals to target population health.
Now the state's hospital association is out with a preliminary look at the results in the first year and they're promising: Hospitals save $100 million in Medicare costs
Maryland hospitals collectively generated more than $100 million in Medicare savings in the first year of an experimental payment system being watched closely by the federal government as a possible national model for reducing health care costs.
The state's medical institutions agreed last year to a five-year agreement with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It drastically changed the way they did business and aimed to curb costs, in part by reducing expensive hospital stays and handling more patient care at the doctor's office.
"Hospitals at the blink of an eye really changed their systems into something that hasn't been broadly tested before — and we are pleased with the first year results," said Carmela Coyle, CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association.
Hospital officials — and health care advocates — also contend that the new cost-cutting effort has not come at the expense of patient care.
An unusual approach but one to keep an eye on.