NEHI Receives Grant to Identify Policies for Reducing Healthcare Costs

The New England Health Institute (NEHI) announced that it has been awarded a grant from the WellPoint Foundation to produce a policy action handbook that identifies opportunities and strategies for reining in the rising costs of health care.

The handbook will focus on major areas of inefficiency and wasteful spending in care delivery, including medication errors, emergency department overuse, hospital readmissions, antibiotic overuse and vaccine under use.

With cost control now a major focus of health reform, the handbook will be a resource for policymakers seeking new ways to improve the quality and lower the cost of health care. NEHI, whose 2008 research first identified the leading causes of waste, estimates that one third of the nation’s $2.6 trillion in health care spending could be eliminated without reducing quality of care.

The handbook will be anchored with a set of policy briefs illustrating the problem and solutions for each area, along with a set of case studies featuring successful strategies already in the field. The case studies will provide real world experience and guidance for health care leaders and policymakers working to implement similar strategies.

The release of the handbook will be supported by a web-based educational campaign and a distribution strategy which leverages key health care stakeholder groups.