Despite Health Spending Slowdown, Cost Control Efforts Must Continue
<p>Efforts begun in recent years to control U.S. health care spending should continue, regardless of what's behind the recent slowdown in cost growth, a new study in the <a href="/publications/journal-article/2013/dec/health-care-spending-giant-slain-or-sleeping"><em>New England Journal of Medicine</em></a> concludes. </p><p>According to The Commonwealth Fund's David Blumenthal, M.D., and Kristof Stremikis and Harvard University's David Cutler, Ph.D., health care costs last year rose by only 0.8 percent per person, the third straight year of moderate cost growth and slightly less than the rate of GDP growth per capita. The new trend may be fueled in part by the Affordable Care Act's payment reforms, which seek to move the nation away from paying for care on a fee-for-service basis and toward a system driven by value. </p>
<p>While analysts are divided on whether the slowdown is a result of the recent recession or is due to steps taken to control costs, the authors argue that the nation must remain steadfast in its new push to "reengineer health services to make them more efficient." </p>
<p>Visit <a href="/publications/journal-article/2013/dec/health-care-spending-giant-slain-or-sleeping">commonwealthfund.org</a> to read more about the bipartisan consensus emerging on cost control strategies in health care. </p>