Nevada selected for health-care cost effort

HealthInsight’s Nevada and New Mexico affiliates, along with three other organizations, have been selected by the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement to join its project that measures and reports on the total cost of health care in regions across the nation.

The network is a national organization of regional health improvement collaboratives working to transform the U.S. health care system, organizers said.

The project is part of the network’s “Getting to Affordability” initiative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and seeks to answer such critical questions as:

■ What does health care cost in my community?

■ Why does health care cost more in some places than others?

■ What’s driving the differences in costs for the same services or procedures?

HealthInsight Nevada, HealthInsight New Mexico, the California Healthcare Performance Information System, the Greater Detroit Area Health Council and Integrated Healthcare Association will join nine other organizations that have previously received funding to address regional barriers to measuring and reporting total cost of care.

“We are excited to now be participating across our four-state region in working to measure total cost of care,” said Marc Bennett, HealthInsight president and CEO. “Through these efforts, we’ll be helping to increase understanding of health care cost drivers in different regions – a critical step to achieving more affordable health care.”