Nearly 18 months ago, in January 2014, I wrote in this publication about a historic agreement between the State of Maryland and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that, for the first time on a statewide level, provided a framework that could reduce per capita health care costs, improve the health of communities, and improve the care experience for patients.
Now, midway through year two of a five-year demonstration period that Princeton University health care economist Uwe Reinhardt called “the boldest proposal in the United States in the last half century to grab the problem of cost growth by the horns,” Maryland, with hospitals leading the way, has made remarkable strides in pursuit of that Triple Aim. Included in this progress is significant headway on the agreement’s quality metrics and a savings to Medicare of $116 million thus far. And while there have certainly been challenges in making such a historic change, the progress is undeniable.
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