Maryland’s global budget for rural hospitals specifies the total amount of revenue acute-care hospitals can receive from all public and private payers. But despite hopes it would reduce hospital use as well as spending, a Commonwealth Fund–supported study in Health Affairs (Apr. 2018) by the University of Pittsburgh’s Eric T. Roberts and colleagues found it did neither, when compared to a control group. Learn the possible reasons why, and read a companion post by the Commonwealth Fund’s Arnav Shah, Shawn Bishop, Christina Ramsay, and Eric Schneider, M.D., to understand global budgets in the context of other payment reform initiatives.
The Potential of Global Budget Programs to Promote High-Value Care
