Massachusetts, pioneer of universal health care, now may try new approach to costs

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BOSTON — Five years ago this week, Massachusetts became the first state to move toward universal health insurance, foreshadowing the 2010 federal health-care overhaul. Now, the commonwealth is debating whether to become a role model again — by replacing the fee-for-service system that has long defined U.S. medicine.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick (D) is trying to “shove,” as he put it, the health-care system here into a new era of cost control. He is proposing a new way of paying for care that would try to propel changes in the way it is delivered. It would give lump payments to teams of doctors responsible for almost all the care of a group of patients, with bonuses for saving money and dispensing high-caliber services that keep people healthy.

The governor’s plan — stirring an impassioned debate inside the gold-domed State House on Beacon Hill and among players in the state’s vaunted health-care industry — would make Massachusetts the only state to promote wholesale new arrangements of “integrated care.”

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/massachusetts_pioneer_of_universal_health_care_now_may_try_new_approach_to_costs/2011/04/07/AFDrunkD_singlePage.html

[DCKit]

1. DOG help him, but the entire insurance industry is going to mobilize against this. nt