Browse by Topic: Health Care Spending

Chapter 224: What Does It Mean for Hospitals, Health Plans, Consumers, and Clinicians?

These fact sheets highlight the major implications of Massachusetts’s 2012 health care cost containment law, Chapter 224, for four key stakeholder groups:  hospitals, health plans, consumers, and clinicians. From increased data reporting requirements for hospitals and health plans, to greater cost transparency for consumers, Chapter 224 will have significant impacts on many aspects of the Massachusetts health care system in the years ahead.

Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012: Implications for MassHealth

This report, written by Robert Seifert and Rachel Gershon of the Center for Health Law and Economics at UMass Medical School, examines the key components of the most recent Massachusetts health reform law - Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012 - as they pertain to the Massachusetts Medicaid program (“MassHealth”). Under the new law, MassHealth will be subject to the annual spending growth benchmark and will be required to implement alternative payment arrangements for most of its members, among other new requirements and responsibilities.

Summary of Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012

This report – written by Anna Gosline and Elisabeth Rodman of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation – summarizes the key components of Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012, “An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs Through Increased Transparency, Efficiency and Innovation,” which was signed into law on August 6, 2012.

Public Perceptions of Health Care Costs in Massachusetts

This poll, fielded in late September 2011 and led by Robert Blendon at the Harvard Opinion Research Program, probed 1002 Massachusetts adults on various questions surrounding health care costs, including their perceptions of major cost drivers, who they believe should take the lead on addressing costs and how important is it for the state to take major action. The results reveal that the public is greatly concerned over rising costs and ready for the state to take major actions to tackle them.

Medicaid Prescription Drug Quality and Cost Management: Options, Opportunities and Progress

On November 13, 2009, MMPI partnered with the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum and Community Catalyst to sponsor a forum exploring efforts in Massachusetts to improve quality and control Medicaid prescription drug costs. At the forum, an issue brief was released that detailed implementation of a preferred drug list in the MassHealth program. In addition, speakers talked about the array of tools available to states to improve prescribing and reduce cost growth.

MassHealth and State Fiscal Health: A New Look at the Effects of Medicaid Spending on State Finances

This report from MMPI and the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center looks at Medicaid spending in relation not only to total public spending, but also to state revenues and overall economic growth. It concludes that, between Fiscal Years 1994 and 2005, Medicaid spending changed very little in relation to the economy as a whole, and therefore was sustainable given the economic growth over that same period. Looking at Medicaid spending with this broader view provides a new context for policy makers as they think about the Medicaid budget, now and in the future.