Health Care
Quality and Cost Council

Roadmap to Cost Containment 
The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council Final Report

In order to get a handle on our state’s health care costs, the Health Care Quality and Cost Council, a public entity responsible for setting quality and cost targets for the Commonwealth, issued the Roadmap to Cost Containment.  The Roadmap thoughtfully outlines 11 key strategies to allow the Commonwealth to meet its goals of sustainably containing cost growth in health care as well as improving the quality of health care.   The Roadmap states that all stakeholders in the Commonwealth must enact policies and changes to create a health care system that supports, encourages, rewards and augments health care system redesign and population health management in order to be successful and have the maximum impact on cost and quality.

Roadmap to Cost Containment - The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council Final Report (PDF) | Word 

Measuring Health Care Quality and Cost in Massachusetts

Measuring Health Care Quality and Cost in Massachusetts is the first annual publication developed by the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy on behalf of the Council. The report provides a comparative view of hospitals based on performance measurements adopted by the Council for use on its website. Section 1 of the report examines the quality and the cost of care by procedure or condition; section 2 provides a summary of quality and cost information for each hospital. However, data for comparing both the cost and quality of a given service remains limitedly available.

Looking ahead, next year's report will include new quality measurements, including serious reportable events, hospital acquired infections and surgical care infections, as well as new cost measurements, including episodic costs associated with well baby and diabetes care. The addition of these and other measures in the future will help refine our understanding of the underlying causes of variations in the health care system and guide both policymakers and providers in establishing an effective and cost-efficient health care system.

• Full Report (PDF - 4.6MB) | Excel*
  * Please note: This spreadsheet is intended for accessibility compliance.

 Annual Meeting - June 25, 2009

The HCQCC held its Annual Meeting on June 25, 2009 at the Hoagland-Pincus Conference Center at UMASS Medical School.

Meeting materials are available below:

• Meeting Agenda (PDF) | Word
• Aligning Payment Reform with Outcomes by Secretary Bigby (PPT) | RTF
• Quality Measures Handout (PDF) | Word
• Cost Measures Handout (PDF) | Word
• Path to a High Value Performance Health System: Improving Value and Achieving Savings by Cathy Shoen (PDF) | PPT | RTF