Effort Will Leverage State’s Healthcare Cost Data to Improve Quality and Accountability

NEW YORK (August 23, 2018) — The Peterson Center on Healthcare today announced an innovative new partnership with the State of Rhode Island and Brown University to study healthcare cost trends in order to improve how care is delivered throughout the state. The new initiative, the Rhode Island Healthcare Cost Trends Project, is made possible through a $550,000 grant from the Center to Brown University’s School of Public Health.

Over the next year, Brown University will work with Rhode Island policymakers and staff to analyze spending data from the state’s all-payer claims database (APCD) to better understand and measure healthcare performance. Using findings from this analysis, the project teams will work with multiple stakeholders—including payers, providers, employers, and patients—to assess cost drivers, identify opportunities to improve outcomes and lower costs of care, and establish a target for future healthcare cost growth.

“In order for states to responsibly control healthcare spending and improve outcomes, they need to better understand what they are already buying,” said Jay Want, MD, Executive Director of the Peterson Center on Healthcare. “We want to give Rhode Island the tools it needs to improve the quality and sustainability of the care its citizens receive, while creating a model that other states can replicate.”

As large purchasers with broad regulatory authority, states have a unique opportunity to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare to address increasing financial pressures. To do so, states will need more information on what works—and a better understanding of their own abilities to drive change—to create high-performance healthcare systems.

Rhode Island joins only a handful of U.S. states to launch a comprehensive effort to measure healthcare claims, examine how dollars are spent, and set a spending growth target.

Increasing the transparency of healthcare data is a strategic priority for the Peterson Center on Healthcare. The Center has engaged in a number of projects focused on using data to develop a better understanding of the drivers of healthcare spending. The Rhode Island Healthcare Cost Trends Project will include exploration of how greater transparency around provider performance can be leveraged to improve healthcare purchasing decisions and care delivery reforms. The Center believes that this initiative will help create an evidence base to foster data transparency efforts across the nation.

Bailit Health, a consulting firm that works with states to improve methods for purchasing and regulating health and human services, will serve as a key advisor and facilitator for this effort.

For more information about the Peterson Center on Healthcare, visit petersonhealthcare.org.

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About the Peterson Center on Healthcare
The Peterson Center on Healthcare is a non-profit organization dedicated to making higher quality, more affordable healthcare a reality for all Americans. The organization is working to transform U.S. healthcare into a high-performance system by finding innovative solutions that improve quality and lower costs, and accelerating their adoption on a national scale. Established by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Center collaborates with stakeholders across the healthcare system and engages in grant-making, partnerships, and research.