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Today, the HPC released two publications, Opportunities for Savings in Health Care 2018 and the seventh installment of the HPC's DataPoints series
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Each brief aims to provide the public with a greater understanding of the scope and scale of savings opportunities and inform the effort to address excessive health care costs in the Commonwealth.
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Opportunities for Savings in Health Care 2018
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A Roadmap to Reduce Massachusetts Health Care Spending by $4.8 Billion in Five Years
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Opportunities for Savings in Health Care 2018
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a companion publication to the 2017 Cost Trends Report, outlines specific opportunities for cost savings between 2018 and 2022 and is based on the HPC's policy recommendations included in the Cost Trends Report.
Specifically, this brief presents results from the HPC's cost-savings modeling for seven scenarios, focusing on care that is unnecessary or has unnecessarily high costs. The HPC set an achievable target for each of the seven topics and estimates that meeting these targets could save the Commonwealth $4.76 billion over five years, or approximately 2.1 percent of total health care expenditures (THCE), if THCE continues to grow at a baseline trend of 3.55 percent every year.
Opportunities for Savings in Health Care 2018
is available on the HPC's website here. A roadmap to achieving the total savings in five years is displayed below.
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Issue 7: Variation in Imaging Spending
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MA ranks as the 4th highest state in Medicare spending for imaging services
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The
latest edition of DataPoints presents,
for the first time, research focused on Medicare spending in Massachusetts for top imaging procedures and provides new insights into a critical, but potentially overused, aspect of patient care. Most notably, the HPC found that annual spending on imaging services for Massachusetts Medicare beneficiaries is 14 percent higher than the U.S. average.
The online brief features interactive data visualization tools that display these patterns of variation.
The HPC found significant annual spending differences for the average beneficiary among states. Key findings include that significant variation exists among states with regard to the frequency and volume of these services, with Massachusetts coming in as the 12th highest utilizer of imaging services. This greater volume of imaging services, combined with the fact that more of these procedures are delivered in expensive facility locations in Massachusetts, such as hospital outpatient departments, contributes to the Commonwealth's rank as the fourth highest spending state in this area.
Key Findings
- Overall, Original Medicare spending for imaging in Massachusetts totaled $762.1 million or 1.3 percent of total healthcare expenditures in 2015.
- Massachusetts spent $892 per beneficiary, 14 percent more than the rest of the U.S., which spent $782 per beneficiary.
- Massachusetts spending was 21 percent higher in aggregate for the top imaging procedures than the U.S. That percentage increased when examining specific subsets. For example, Massachusetts spent 31 percent more per beneficiary for advanced imaging, which includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans, than the U.S.
- The price of imaging services ranges from 3 percent to 20 percent higher in Massachusetts compared to the U.S. average. For example, the average price for one common imaging procedure (ultrasound of the heart) was $459 in Massachusetts, compared to an average U.S. price of $379, a 21 percent difference.
- Massachusetts ranked 12th in utilization of imaging services among states, particularly high for electrocardiograms, which was 33 percent higher than the U.S.
Issue 7 of DataPoints is available on the HPC's website
here.
HPC DataPoints
showcases brief overviews and interactive graphics on relevant health policy topics. As you read through DataPoints, we encourage you to engage with the interactive graphics by hovering your mouse over different data points to obtain additional information. The graphics display best within Internet Explorer.
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A printable version of our full 2018 public meeting calendar is available for download
here. All Board, Committee, and Advisory Council Meetings are held at the HPC's offices (50 Milk Street, 8th Floor) unless otherwise noted.
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The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC), established in 2012, is an independent state agency charged with monitoring health care spending growth in Massachusetts and providing data-driven policy recommendations regarding health care delivery and payment system reform.The HPC's mission is to advance a more transparent, accountable, and innovative health care system through its independent policy leadership and investment programs.
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