Posted by: David Morales, Commissioner, Division of Health Care Finance and Policy
To date this week, the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy has held two days of hearings which focused on the urgency of escalating health care costs and the implications for consumers and employers, and on identifying factors contributing to rising costs and challenges in health care delivery. The information gathered over those two days laid the groundwork for the focus of today’s hearing: Solutions and Policy Strategies to Mitigate Health Care Cost Growth.
The hearing will begin with expert testimony from Dr. Stuart Altman, Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, on Market Reform Considerations to Reduce the Growth in Health Care Spending. Next, a panel will be moderated by Alan Weil, Executive Director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, who will facilitate a discussion around various policy solutions and potential barriers to solutions for mitigating cost growth while maintaining health care quality in the Commonwealth. The panel will discuss issues such as slowing the rate of growth in prices, improving efficiency in health care delivery, increasing competition, coordinated care and accountable payment system alternatives, among others.
The afternoon on this last day of hearings will be dedicated to public testimony and the Office of the Attorney General may call additional witnesses.
The hearing begins at 9 a.m. at the Joseph P. Healey Library University Club, 11th floor, University of Massachusetts - Boston. These hearings are open to the public and residents are encouraged to participate in this critical conversation about how the health care community can work together and develop concrete solutions to lower rising health care costs. A detailed agenda for today’s hearing as well as the names and affiliations of panel participants, moderators and expert witnesses can be found at http://www.mass.gov/dhcfp/costtrends.
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