The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services is recommending five strategies to reduce healthcare spending and improve health outcomes in the state.
The recommendations are highlighted in the department's Dec. 15 report to the Delaware General Assembly.
For the report, the department hosted benchmark summit meetings attended by policymakers, physicians and health plan leaders from states such as Oregon, Vermont, California, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Based on information from these meetings, the department came up with five strategies to improve health outcomes and reduce the state's average annual personal healthcare cost growth, which recent national/state data show was 5.7 percent from 2004 to 2014. America's Health Rankings, cited in the report, has ranked Delaware approximately 30th in the nation for overall health since 2006.
Five strategies listed in the report are:
1. Establishing state healthcare spending and quality benchmarks
2. Examining and reporting on variation in healthcare cost and care delivery, as well as ensuring providers have access to useful data
3. Implementing alternative and capitated-rate payment models across Medicaid and state employee populations
4. Supporting providers so they can achieve success under risk-based payment models
5. Teaming up with stakeholders to continue improving social and economic issues affecting health outcomes
Read the full report here.
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