Health Care Quality and Cost Council
From MAHealthIT
Health Care Quality and Cost Council
Overview:
The Health Care Quality and Cost Council is mandated under Massachusetts General Law chapter 6A to establish statewide goals for improving health care quality, containing health care costs, and reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care; to demonstrate progress toward achieving those goals; and to disseminate, through a consumer-friendly Website and other media, comparative health care cost, quality, and related information for consumers, health care providers, health plans, employers, policy-makers, and the general public.
The Council includes a diverse group of individuals with a broad array of expertise. The Council was established by Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006, and is within, but not subject to control of, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The Council receives input and advice from an Advisory Committee that includes representation from consumers, business, labor, health care providers, and health plans. The Council reports annually to the Legislature on its progress in achieving the goals of improving quality and containing or reducing health care costs, and promulgates additional rules and regulations to promote its quality improvement and cost containment goals.
The mission statement of the Council is to develop and coordinate the implementation of health care quality improvement goals that are intended to lower or contain the growth in health care costs while improving the quality of care, including reductions in racial and ethnic health disparities. The Council’s vision is that by June 30, 2012 Massachusetts will consistently rank in national measures as the state achieving the highest levels of performance in care that is safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient, equitable, integrated, and affordable.
Current projects:
Roadmap to Cost Containment
In 2007, the Health Care Quality and Council established a goal to reduce the annual rise in health care costs to no more than the unadjusted growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2012. They reaffirmed that goal for FY10 in July 2009.
The Council is committed to developing a “Roadmap to Cost Containment” to demonstrate in concrete terms how the Commonwealth could accomplish this goal. The purpose of the Roadmap is to identify specific changes in the organization, delivery, financing and regulation of health care in Massachusetts that will enable the Commonwealth to achieve this cost containment goal; to recommend strategies and timelines for implementing those changes; and to build broad support for this plan. The Council will submit this Roadmap to the legislature for consideration.
The Council selected Bailit Health Purchasing, LLC, as its Roadmap Director vendor to guide and coordinate the work of the Council and its Committees in developing the Roadmap. This vendor will help to organize and facilitate the Roadmap development, including ensuring participation from a broad cross-section of stakeholders and using critical data to inform the Council’s deliberations and recommendations. The Council’s Cost Containment Committee has reviewed a variety of cost control strategies at each meeting to decide whether or not to include in the Roadmap. Currently, the Committee and Michael Bailit are working to integrate the recommendations of the Special Commission on Payment Reform as well as the findings of the RAND Corporation report on potential savings from a list of specific cost control strategies in the Commonwealth. Mr. Bailit is on track to finalize the Roadmap for Council approval at the September 2009 Council meeting.
Patient Safety Programs Workgroup
Another key goal of the Council is to ensure and improve patient safety and effective care. The Council’s Quality and Safety Committee has charged a workgroup with developing standards for patient safety programs in all healthcare settings as well as implementation recommendations. The group is undergoing a stakeholder engagement process with key representatives from a variety of health care settings to gauge the feasibility of implementing patient safety programs as well as their reactions to the group’s core standards. The group plans to make their recommendations to the Committee and full Council in December.
Consumer Friendly Website on Health Care Quality and Costs
The HCQCC is in the process of enhancing its consumer friendly website, www.mass.gov/myhealthcareoptions, to include updated and more quality and cost information for inpatient and outpatient settings as well as new information for ambulatory settings.
Links
