Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Maryland's Ambitious Program To Cut And Control Health Care Costs Is Actually Paying Off
The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Health Care Delivery Experiment Saves Medicare More Than Half A Billion Dollars In Hospitals
Hospitals in Maryland have saved millions of dollars in health care costs by eschewing the tradition fee-for-service model for one that emphasizes overall health, a report released by state regulators shows. Three years into a unique five-year agreement with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that began in 2014, the hospitals saved $586 million for the federal health care programs, above a major goal of the program. (Cohn, 3/16)
Kaiser Health News: Maryland's Global Budget System For Hospital Payments Saves Millions In Health Care Costs
Saturdays at Mercy Medical Center used to be perversely lucrative. The dialysis clinic across the street was closed on weekends. That meant the downtown Baltimore hospital would see patients with failing kidneys who should have gone to the dialysis center. So Mercy admitted them, collecting as much as $30,000 for treatment that typically costs hundreds of dollars.“That’s how the system worked,” said Mercy CEO Thomas Mullen. Instead of finding less expensive alternatives, he said, “our financial people were saying, ‘We need to admit them.’” (Hancock, 3/19)
