News
Interim Report on Health Care Reform Implementation in Maryland Released
The Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council (HCRCC) released its Interim Report at a press conference in Baltimore on July 26, 2010. The report is the result of the HCRCC’s efforts since March 2010, when it was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to make recommendations regarding Maryland’s implementation of the recently enacted federal health reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The report includes: an overview of the federal law and its general implications for reform in Maryland; the role and mission of the HCRCC; the opportunities and challenges presented by reform implementation and the principles by which it must be guided; the state’s unique health care landscape and regulatory environment against which implementation decisions must be made; the projected fiscal impact of reform over the next decade; the workgroup process through which the HCRCC will formulate its recommendations on the decisions most critical to Maryland’s success; and a timeline for planning and key activities. The HCRCC is co-chaired by the Honorable Anthony G. Brown, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and John M. Colmers, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The HCRCC is staffed by Charles J. Milligan, The Hilltop Institute’s executive director, and Alice Burton, principal at Riverside Consulting, LLC. To support the HCRCC’s work, Hilltop researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of the provisions of PPACA and developed a financial model to project Maryland’s costs and savings associated with implementing health care reform. The model, based on current assumptions, predicts that health care reform could save Maryland an estimated $829 million in health care costs in the next decade. To learn more about the HCRCC and view the report, visit www.healthreform.maryland.gov/interimreport.html.
Posted 07/26/10
Hilltop Presents at State Health Access Program Grantee Meeting
Hilltop Executive Director Charles Milligan presented the luncheon keynote address at the second State Health Access Program (SHAP) All Grantee meeting on June 26, 2010, in Arlington, VA. Milligan’s keynote, entitled Implementation of the Affordable Care Act, focused on state opportunities and major decisions related to federal health reform and offered suggestions for the role that SHAP grantees could play in their respective states. To view the presentation, click here.
Posted 07/27/10
Hilltop Presents at AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting
Hilltop Executive Director Charles Milligan participated in a roundtable at the 2010 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on June 28, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts. The session, Balancing LTC: Can More Home and Community-Based Support Save Money While Improving Care?, explored the cost effectiveness of the most recent generation of home and community-based services (HCBS) programs and included the interaction between the Medicare and Medicaid programs, workforce concerns, and the need to better measure effectiveness. Milligan’s presentation, Dual Eligibles in Maryland, gave an overview of Hilltop’s research on cross-payer effects for dual eligibles in Maryland, provided the results of the study, and discussed some implications for policy. To view the presentation, click here. To access the full report, click here.
Posted 06/29/10