The National Governors Association on Tuesday released a new online resource to help the state implement solutions to become more effective purchasers, regulators and workforce developers in healthcare.
The tool, called "Health Care Transformation Resources for State Leaders," is part of an initiative funded by the PetersonCenter on Healthcare and carried out by NGA and the National Academy of Medicine. It aims to identify promising state-based innovations to improve healthcare quality and lower costs.
The interactive online program highlights strategies states have used to successfully transform their healthcare systems, such as leverage data to improve healthcare performance; linking physical and behavioral healthcare delivery; combating heroin and prescription drug abuse; improving rural health and workplace planning; and adopting new models to improve how healthcare is delivered and paid for. It also includes a series of case studies that outline the steps policymakers took to implement reforms and the outcomes that resulted.
NGA, NAM and the Peterson Center on Healthcare developed the resource after a series of governor-sponsored healthcare events held in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. Governors brought together public and private stakeholders to discuss shared opportunities to improve healthcare outcomes and lower costs.
"Many solutions to improve the quality of healthcare and lower costs are effectively hidden in plain sight at the state level," Peterson Center on Healthcare Executive Director Jeffrey Selberg said in a statement. "This exciting initiative identifies and highlights these innovations, a key step in the ultimate goal of spreading and scaling them as best practices and as a national standard. The efforts of the National Governors Association and the National Academy of Medicine have set us on a path to accomplish that goal."