GOVERNOR O’MALLEY AND LT. GOVERNOR BROWN HIGHLIGHT COMMONWEALTH FUND REPORT SHOWING MARYLAND'S HEALTH CARE PROGRESS

The report spotlights the State's progress in bringing low-cost, high quality health care to more Marylanders

ANNAPOLIS, MD – The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation based in New York, issued a report comparing local, state, and national health systems. The report highlights the substantial progress Maryland has made over the last five years.

The report, “Aiming Higher: Results from a Scorecard on State Health System Performance, 2014,” is a report card on U.S. state health systems, based on a comprehensive analysis of access and affordability, prevention and treatment, healthy lives, and avoidable hospital use and cost. The report states that Maryland is one of only four states that “stand out for their net improvement across indicators.” The State improved in fourteen indicators, while only four indicators deteriorated, making Maryland only one of two states to have a +10 differential. Additionally, Maryland was one of five states that improved on ten or more indicators of health equity, rising from a rank of 30 to a rank of 12.

“Through better choices, Maryland continues to make great strides in health care and in bringing low-cost, high quality coverage to more Marylanders,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “Today’s news shows a lot of improvement, but our work is far from finished. We are focused on strengthening Maryland's middle class, and helping to lift families out of poverty -- continuing to ensure that more Marylanders have access to quality, affordable health coverage is a key ingredient of that effort.”

“The foundation of strong communities are healthy families, and we’ve been working to expand access quality, affordable health care throughout our state so that Maryland remains a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” said Lt. Governor Anthony Brown. “Through innovative efforts like our Health Enterprise Zone program, we’ve been bringing resources to the neighborhoods that need them most, working each and every day to ensure that no Marylander is forced to choose between seeing a doctor and providing for their family.”


The State also ranks in the top five for: (1) the lowest percentage of adults who went without care because of cost in the last year; (2) fewest at-risk adults without a routine doctor visit in the last two years; (3) fewest long-term nursing home residents with an antipsychotic medication; and (4) fewest number of adults who smoke. Overall, Maryland now ranks 17 in the nation, up from a ranking of 24 in the nation five years ago.

“This report highlights the progress Maryland has made in health,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, Secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “Our actions today are setting the stage for even greater improvement over the next five years.”

Today’s news comes on the heels of the State’s recent efforts to reform health care in Maryland. Nearly 329,000 Marylanders enrolled in health coverage through the Affordable Care Act as of April 14, 2014, exceeding the State’s goal of 260,000 enrollments by more than 26 percent. Additionally, the O’Malley-Brown Administration implemented a new model for hospital payments in early 2014 in which Maryland hospitals will be financially rewarded for keeping people out of the hospital. The plan was called “the boldest proposal in the United States in the last half century to grab the problem of cost growth by the horns.”Through these better choices, Maryland is poised to keep doing better and getting healthier.

Note: The O’Malley-Brown Administration continues to make strides in health care in Maryland. Governor O’Malley has set 16 strategic goals for the State. Among others, the State is on track to meet the goals to reduce preventable hospitalizations by 10 percent by the end of 2015 and reduce infant mortality in Maryland by 10 percent by 2017. Additionally, the O’Malley-Brown Administration has embraced CRISP, Maryland’s statewide health information exchange (HIE). CRISP’s Regional Extension Center for Health IT and HIE efforts serve to advance health and wellness of Marylanders by helping healthcare providers to use EHRs in a meaningful way and enabling those providers to share clinical data with other providers and hospital systems across the State.