Dive Brief:
- A report the Center for American Progressrecently released suggests states could implement policies to control healthcare costs and improve the quality of care since they have substantial regulatory authority over health insurance.
- Some states, like Maryland and Massachusetts, have been active in implementing cost control reforms but the report shows two dozen additional states that are working to reduce costs and improve quality.
- The report includes a summary of options for state governments to consider and examples of states already implementing those options.
Dive Insight:
Healthcare costs are projected to grow faster than the overall economy and states struggle to maintain their budgets. It makes sense for states to implement their own reforms so that they can tailor them to the size of the state, demographics, etc.
States already have considerable control over the regulation of health insurance as they run their Medicaid and CHIP programs or run the exchanges for individual insurance. They also control rate review processes, physician licensing, antitrust laws, scope-of-practice regulations, as well as provider and insurer regulations.
The report's list of more than a dozen state reform options includes those that would help reduce healthcare costs, improve the quality of care and protect residents.
Some of the examples include:
- Implement bundled payments for all payers - states should create bundles that have been developed for Medicare or in other places, such as hip and knee replacements. Examples are provided from Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, and Delaware;
- Place a cap on the growth of per capita healthcare spending as seen in Massachusetts and Maryland;
- Improve long-term care delivery by focusing more on home and community-based services as California, Maryland, Montana, Oregon, Texas, and Missouri have implemented.