Here are five key points from Massachusetts’ latest healthcare spending report.
1. The state’s $54 billion in total healthcare expenditures in 2014 represents a 4.8 percent increase from 2013. The figure exceeds the healthcare cost growth benchmark of 3.6 percent by 1.2 percentage points. The benchmark was recommended in a 2012 law.
2. Spending for MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid and state children’s health insurance program, increased by 19 percent, or $2.4 billion in 2014 compared to 2013. Enrollment during the same period increased by 23 percent.
3. In 2014, total medical expenses per member per month among commercial payers increased by 2.9 percent, as opposed to a 1.2 percent increase in 2013.
4. The proportion of members whose care was paid for using alternative payment methods in the commercial market was 38 percent in 2014, compared to 34 percent in 2013.
5. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office recently forecast the state’s 2015 spending in a new report, which claims that “higher priced hospitals continue to draw significant volume, with higher priced hospitals located outside the region sometimes drawing more patient discharges than lower priced hospitals located within the region.”
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