When it began, the experiment was championed by Joshua Sharfstein, MD, the associate dean for public health practice and training at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and the former Maryland Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Maryland tested the approach in 10 rural hospitals and then, in January 2014, global budgeting went statewide. The approach encouraged hospitals to hire care coordinators to check up on patients, partner with community groups to work on issues like housing and create primary care centers in the community to make medical care more accessible.
According to the report, the hospitals are currently on track to reach their financial and patient care targets now, nearly two years into the five-year agreement with CMS. Just one year into the agreement, the Maryland Hospital Association said cost savings topped more than $100 million, already nearly a third of the way to the five-year goal of $330 million. Additionally, hospital readmissions dropped at a rate faster than the national average.
“To a certain extent in the United States of America, a healthier community may mean a financial problem for the hospital, but no longer is that the case in Maryland,” Dr. Sharfstein told NPR. “And that creates a great opportunity for public health.”
To learn more about what Maryland hospitals are doing to improve population health and reduce costs, listen to the full NPR report here.
More articles on population health:
Pediatricians asked to screen for food insecurity
Turning insights into action: Care Coordination Institute’s Dr. Brent Egan on key technology for population health management
Infographic: UF illustrates the demographics of disease in the US
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