Making Quality Health Care More Affordable

This morning, in a speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Governor Patrick laid out his plan to work in partnership with the health care community to bring down health care costs for consumers. His plan will help caregivers find innovative, lower cost ways to deliver better care.

 

Massachusetts is already a bold leader in health care and this new proposal is the next phase in Massachusetts' health care reform. Here are the main provisions of the new legislation:

• The bill encourages the market to move away from the current model of health care - which pays for quantity of care, not quality – toward a system that integrates care and rewards healthier outcomes.
• It achieves this goal in large part by encouraging the growth of integrated care organizations that support innovation and brings down costs by promoting health, not just dealing with chronic emergencies.
• Many private groups are already moving toward this model. State government will help them along the way by providing guidelines, incentives and metrics for innovation.
• The bill also reauthorizes the Commissioner of Insurance to reject excessive health care premium increases, though the bill allows the Commissioner to consider a number of criteria related to progress on payment reform while making his decision.

For more information: 

• Read the press release
• Summary further breaking down the proposed legislation 
• An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Controlling Costs by Reforming Health Systems and Payments 
• Governor's remarks from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce 

 

Comments

[Bonnie Day]

Governor Patrick,

One hidden cost at teaching hospitals is for retiring department chairs who are given offices, support staff and remain on payrolls in exchange for part-time consulting or project-based work. Within academic medicine, I'd suggest taking a closer look--or requesting senior administration to take a closer look at areas for cost containment OTHER than direct patient care, costs that inevitably impact the overall bottom line.