Case Studies and Tools to Support the Spread of Promising Practices in Health Care Delivery and Cost Control

During 2019, the Issues Research case study team will highlight health care organizations, collaboratives, and states that offer exemplary care models or approaches for health system improvement, describing the features and factors that promote or hinder their uptake and spread. This will include four work streams: 1) Expanding the current case study series on promising approaches to primary health care for low‐income populations, focusing on integration of physical health, behavioral health, and community social services and on engaging patients and caregivers. 2) Undertaking a new series describing how leading Medicare Advantage plans are partnering with providers and community‐based organizations to improve outcomes and care for high‐need, high‐cost beneficiaries. 3) Collaborating with experts to develop additional use case studies and learning about sustainable partnerships between health and social service organizations. 4) Describing state efforts to control costs, such as Montana’s employee benefit plan, which uses Medicare rates as a reference‐pricing benchmark for hospital payment, and the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, which sets benchmarks for spending growth reductions and recommends policy.