Colorado Medical Society

http://dev.cms.org/articles/colorado-among-the-best-in-commonwealth-funds-state-scorecard/

Colorado among the best in Commonwealth Fund’s state scorecard

Wednesday, May 07, 2014 03:35 PM

The Commonwealth Fund recently released its 2014 Scorecard on State Health System Performance, which assesses states on 42 indicators of health care access, quality, costs, and outcomes over the 2007–2012 period. This period includes the Great Recession and precedes the major coverage expansions of the Affordable Care Act.

The authors found that changes in health system performance were mixed overall, with states making progress on some indicators while losing ground on others. In a few areas that were the focus of national and state attention—childhood immunizations, hospital readmissions, safe prescribing, and cancer deaths—there were widespread gains but more often than not, states exhibited little or no improvement.

“Access to care deteriorated for adults, while costs increased,” the authors stated. “Persistent disparities in performance across and within states and evidence of poor care coordination highlight the importance of insurance expansions, health care delivery reforms, and payment changes in promoting a more equitable, high-quality health system.”

Colorado received praise for being one of four states that achieved the greatest net improvement among indicators. Our state ranked in the top quartile overall – improving from 15th on the 2009 scorecard to 12th on the 2014 scorecard – and ranked in the top quartile in three individual measures: Prevention and treatment, avoidable hospital use and cost and healthy lives. Colorado ranked in the second quartile in equity and in the third quartile in access and affordability. Since 2009, the state has worsened in six performance indicators and improved in 16 indicators.

States “influence health system performance in many ways: By purchasing care for low-income populations and their own employees; by regulating providers and establishing rules that guide health care and insurance markets; by setting statewide strategy for health information technology and exchange; by supporting public health; and, increasingly, by acting as conveners and collaborators for improvement initiatives with other health care stakeholders,” the authors stated.

“Opportunities for improvement abound. Even leading states did not perform consistently well – or consistently improve – across all performance indicators.”

Click here to access the 2014 scorecard on the Commonwealth Fund’s website.