Maryland is in the process of implementing a new all-payer model for hospital payment. Under this system, the federal government permits the statewide Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) to regulate hospital prices. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the all-payer model effective January 1, 2014.
On Friday, December 5, the UMBC School of Public Policy hosted a forum at the Columbus Center in downtown Baltimore to examine how hospitals and health care providers are adapting to the new model and its effect the people it serves.
Robert Murray, President of Global Health Payment LLC, and Donna Kinzer, Executive Director of the HSCRC, provided detailed overviews of the history of hospital payments in Maryland and a description of the new system and how it shifts focus to patients with the goal of improving health outcomes and controlling costs. Kinzer discussed how the new model will increase efficiency and will align payment with new ways of organizing and providing care.
Following Murray and Kinzer’s presentations, Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant and member of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, shared how the new model can save costs by increasing care such as prevention, effective management of chronic disease, and care that responds to family and patient preferences.
Stuart Guterman, Vice President for Medicare and Cost Control, The Commonwealth Fund, examined trends in hospital spending nationally and discussed the relationships between hospital payments and costs to talk about the HSCRC’s impact in Maryland in a national context.
The forum, titled, “Controlling Hospital and Health Care Spending in Maryland in the Era of Budget Caps,” was sponsored by the UMBC School of Public Policy, the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR), the Hilltop Institute, CareFirst, and LifeBridge Health. The event was organized by UMBC Public Policy Professor David Salkever. For more information, click here.
Tags: CAHSS, PublicPolicy
