The state started the budgeting practice in 2014. Maryland has a waiver exempting it from federal rules governing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Quality measures, inflation and population changes are taken into account when determining rates.
Under the system, hospitals are paid the same rates by public insurance programs as they are by private insurance plans and cash payers.
“Maryland is the only state now where hospitals are accountable for the health of their communities,” Nicole Stallings, executive vice president and chief external affairs officer at the Maryland Hospital Association, told the Banner, “So this really accelerated the investment that was happening outside of hospital walls.”
