Improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of publicly financed health care
Return on Investment Purchasing Institute
“ROI”—or return on investment—is one of the latest buzzwords across the health care system, with policymakers, payors, and consumers demanding greater value for dollars spent on health care. In Medicaid, state officials, legislators, and other stakeholders are increasingly being challenged to identify programs with potential to both improve quality of care and control health care costs.
To help states, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) launched the Return on Investment Purchasing Institute, a initiative designed to build state capacity to forecast the financial returns that may be generated by investments in quality improvement.
Through this 12-month initiative, eight states — Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Washington — received focused training paired with intensive technical assistance around concepts and methodology for calculating ROI. Participants evaluated the ROI potential for specific quality initiatives and analyzed the implications of ROI analyses for program planning and resource allocation. Participating state teams had pre-release access to the CHCS ROI Forecasting Calculator for Quality Initiatives, a tool designed to help states assess and demonstrate the ROI from proposed quality improvement initiatives.
Participating state teams attended two Purchasing Institute (PI) meetings, received personalized technical assistance, collaborated with other state participants, attend an PI Summit with the broader Medicaid policy community, and shared information through an online learning network.