Controlling Medicare Cost Growth through Innovations in Provider Payment and Service Delivery

For each of the past five decades, average annual growth of per capita health expenditures in the United States has outstripped average annual growth in per capita GDP. Federal spending on health as a percentage of GDP is only expected to continue its rapid ascent, with Medicare serving as an outsized contributor to rising costs as compared to other federal programs. Why do health care costs—especially Medicare costs—continue to balloon, and what measures are being employed to control their rate of growth? Have these efforts yielded the intended results?

Dr. Michael Chernew, Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, will discuss strategies to rein in health care costs with a particular emphasis on Medicare provider payment reforms. He will analyze the extent to which specific mechanisms such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have succeeded in lowering Medicare spend and identify key design features for making these mechanisms successful.

This event is hosted as part of the China Health Partnership’s Global Health Systems Series to promote mutual learning across international health systems in support of reform efforts in China and the broader global community.