Webinar: Payment Reform: State & Private Sector Collaborations

August 6, 2012

While uncertainty remains regarding the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, there is intensifying pressure for a system-wide focus on controlling health care costs. The U.S. spent nearly 18 percent of GDP on health care in 2010, and many state governments and insurers are collaborating to reduce spending growth to a more sustainable level by improving provider payment models.

This webinar explored current approaches to payment reform that offer insight for future federal and state policies, including:

• the Health Care Payment Improvement Initiative underway in Arkansas,
• the Alternative Quality Contract developed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts,
• the recent Massachusetts cost containment legislation, and
• the use of value-based purchasing for controlling costs.

This event is part of a new NIHCM Foundation webinar series, Transforming the Health Care Landscape.

More information:

• Agenda
• Speaker Biographies
• Presentations
  
  • Health Care Payment Improvement Initiative: Building a Healthier Future for All Arkansans, Steve Spaulding, Vice President, Enterprise Networks, Arkansas BlueCross BlueShield and John Selig, MPA, Director, Arkansas Department of Human Services
  • Advancing the Twin Goals of Improving Health Care Quality While Slowing Spending Growth: The Alternative Quality Contract, Dana Gelb Safran, ScD, Senior Vice President, Performance Measurement & Improvement, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
  • Massachusetts Statewide Payment Reform, Nancy Kane, MBA, DBA, Professor of Management, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health 
  • Reference Pricing as an Employer Strategy for Managing High-Cost Episodes of Care, James C. Robinson, PhD, MPH, Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Economics; Director, Berkeley Center for Health Technology; University of California, School of Public Health
• Additional Resources
  • Arkansas Health Care Payment Improvement Initiative
  • Chernew ME, Mechanic RE, Landon BE and Gelb Safran D. "Private-Payer Innovation in Massachusetts: The 'Alternative Quality Contract,'" Health Affairs, Jan. 2011 30(1):51–61.
  • Song Z, Gelb Safran D, Landon BE, Landrum MB, He Y, Mechanic RE, Day MP, Chernew ME. “The ‘Alternative Quality Contract,’ Based on a Global Budget, Lowered Medical Spending and Improved Quality,” Health Affairs, July 2012 31(8).
  • “The Next Phase of Massachusetts Health Care Reform” – Summary of Massachusetts Senate Bill No. 2400 “An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs Through Increased Transparency, Efficiency, and Innovation.”
• Archive