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The Annual Report on the Performance of the Massachusetts Health Care System
(March 2024)

Annual Report 2024

The Annual Report on the Performance of the Massachusetts Health Care System examines trends in costs, utilization, coverage, and quality indicators through 2022, a period following two years of unprecedented volatility in the health care system due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New this year, the report includes a chapter on health care affordability that presents a consumer-centric picture of rising health care costs and its downstream implications, as well as a section and interactive dashboard that provides comparative insights into how medical spending varies by community demographics.

Enrollment Trends - September 2021 through September 2023 Data (March 2024)

Enrollment Trends

Twice per year, CHIA updates its detailed Enrollment Trends analysis for the most recent two-year period to give researchers and policymakers insight into the market. The latest edition covers the period between September 2021 and September 2023 and includes breakouts by payers and product types in private commercial and public market sectors.

Enrollment Trends reporting includes an interactive dashboard, a detailed databook, and technical appendix. Coverage is defined by unique Massachusetts residents with primary, medical membership in the 12 largest commercial payers, MassHealth (Medicaid), or Medicare.

Reports on Massachusetts Acute Hospital Case Mix Databases (February 2024)

Case Mix Reports Feb 2024

Under state law, CHIA maintains databases of patient encounters with acute care hospitals. Collectively known as Case Mix, the databases capture each inpatient admission, emergency department visit, and outpatient observation stay and includes the medical reason for the visit, procedures and services provided, charges incurred, and duration of the visit, as well as patient demographics.

CHIA's latest interactive dashboards on emergency department (ED) visits and hospital inpatient discharge data (HIDD). show trends from October 2018 – September 2023.


 

 

 


 


 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 


 

 

 

 

 


 


 

 

 


Massachusetts Hospital Profiles (February 2024)
Massachusetts Hospital PRofiles

Hospitals and hospital health systems play a crucial role in the Massachusetts health care delivery system. CHIA is responsible for providing meaningful analysis on hospital and health systems through various measures and reporting. In support of this goal, CHIA has released its most recent Hospital Profiles

Massachusetts Hospital Profiles provide a valuable snapshot of performance metrics for each hospital and allow policymakers and stakeholders to further assess the effect the pandemic has had on hospitals and health systems in their district. 

Continuous Skilled Nursing Care Biennial Report (January 2024)
Continuous Skilled Nursing Report

Massachusetts’ General Law Chapter 12C Section 24 requires the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), in conjunction with MassHealth, to provide a “biennial report on the provision of continuous skilled nursing [CSN] care as defined in 101 Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) 361.”

This biennial report is required to address eight questions, including an assessment of the degree to which hours of care authorized for CSN are delivered and an evaluation of rates paid for CSN care in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Commonwealth).

Reports on Massachusetts Acute Hospital Case Mix Databases (November 2023)
Case Mix Data Updates

CHIA maintains databases of patient encounters with Massachusetts acute care hospitals. Collectively known as Case Mix, the databases capture each inpatient admission, emergency department visit, and outpatient observation stay and includes the medical reason for the visit, procedures and services provided, charges incurred, and duration of the visit, as well as patient demographics.

CHIA's latest interactive dashboards on emergency department (ED) visits and hospital inpatient discharge data (HIDD). show trends from October 2018 – June 2023.

DataMatters (November 2023)
DataMatters November 2023

This issue of DataMatters focuses on primary care expenditures in Massachusetts. Investments in primary care can influence patient outcomes and are often associated with lower health care costs and higher quality care.

The “Data User Profile” section centers on a Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School publication, Neighborhood Poverty and Distance to Pediatric Hospital Care. Their research used CHIA’s Case Mix data to discover differences in admissions between children from advantaged neighborhoods and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Quality Measure Catalog Survey Results (November 2023)
Quality Measure Catalog Dashboard

The Quality Measure Catalog Dashboard presents information about the quality measures employed in global budget contracts between health plans and Massachusetts provider organizations, and how those measures compare to the Aligned Measure Set recommended by the Massachusetts Quality Measure Alignment Taskforce.

These results help policymakers, health care providers, payers, and other industry leaders in identifying opportunities for improvement and encouraging accountability across the payer and provider community.

Hospital-Wide Pediatric All-Payer Readmissions in Massachusetts (October 2023)
Pediatric Hospital Readmissions

CHIA has published its inaugural report on pediatric readmissions in Massachusetts acute care hospitals.This report presents rates by patient demographics, payer type, and diagnoses, in addition to risk-adjusted rates by acute care hospitals and hospital types for state fiscal years (SFY) 2017 through 2022

This report is part CHIA’s broader effort to track readmissions in the state of Massachusetts which also includes the analysis of adult readmissions in acute care hospitals, behavioral health readmissions, and hospital-specific profiles which provide readmissions statistics for each hospital.

Hospital Specific Readmissions Profiles (October 2023)
Hospital Specific Readmissions

This series of reports provides in-depth readmissions information for each Massachusetts acute care hospital. This edition includes interactive graphics which provide a deeper look into each hospital, as well as allowing for comparisons between hospitals or at the statewide level.

Each report contains information including risk­ standardized readmission rates, readmission rates by discharge setting and diagnoses with the highest numbers and rates.

Massachusetts Primary Care Expenditures (October 2023)
Primary Care Expenditures

Primary care comprises an array of vital services, that can meaningfully shape patient outcomes and is foundational to a well-performing health care system. However, comprehensive data on expenditures for these services has been limited. As part of its efforts to inform policy initiatives and promote delivery system reforms and investment in primary care, CHIA collects data on payments made by health plans to health care providers delivering primary care services.

This report focuses on spending for primary care services for members enrolled in private commercial, Medicaid MCO/ACO-A, and Medicare Advantage plans for calendar year (CY) 2021.

Massachusetts Hospital and Hospital Health System Financial Dashboard (September 2023)
Massachusetts Hospital Financial Information

CHIA reports both annually and quarterly on the financial performance of Massachusetts acute care hospitals, associated hospital health systems, and affiliated physician organizations. Our latest data includes quarterly data through June 30, 2023 and annual data through hospital fiscal year 2022.

Information includes trends in profitability, liquidity, and solvency and also compares a hospital’s individual performance to its peer cohort. Acute hospitals are grouped into cohorts of Academic Medical Centers (AMCs,) Teaching hospitals, Community hospitals and Community-High Public Payer Hospitals (HPP)

DataMatters (September 2023)
DataMatters September 2023

This issue of DataMatters focuses on the HFY 2022 Annual Hospital and Health System Financial Performance Report and its key findings.

In this issue's “Data User Profile” section, the Health Policy Commission (HPC) walks through their use of CHIA data in the development of their 2023 Health Care Cost Trends Report. CHIA is proud to be part of the process for the tenth year, as the HPC pulls together policy recommendations for Massachusetts policymakers and legislators.

You can also see upcoming events related to health care and/or data that may be of interest to you.

Enrollment Trends - March 2021 through March 2023 Data (September 2023)
Enrollmment Trends - September 2023 Publication

Twice per year, CHIA updates its detailed Enrollment Trends analysis for the most recent two-year period to give researchers and policymakers insight into the market. The latest edition covers the period between March 2021 and March 2023 and includes breakouts by payers and product types in private commercial and public market sectors.

Enrollment Trends reporting includes an interactive dashboard, a detailed databook, and technical appendix. Coverage is defined by unique Massachusetts residents with primary, medical membership in the 12 largest commercial payers, MassHealth (Medicaid), or Medicare.

Hospital Utilization in Massachusetts: An Assessment by Race and Ethnicity (August 2023)
Hospital Utilization in Massachusetts: An Assessment by Race and Ethnicity

Hospital Utilization in Massachusetts: An Assessment by Race & Ethnicity (SFY 2021) focuses on differences in acute care utilization by race and ethnicity in Massachusetts. Measures of acute care hospital utilization are often used to assess hospital quality and performance, monitor changing demand for acute care services, and estimate the overall health and disease burden of the population.

This reporting includes an initial examination of utilization patterns for patients by racial and ethnic groups across acute care settings, providing a more comprehensive look than previously reported in the Commonwealth.

Relative Price and Provider Price Variation (August 2023))
Relative Price - August 2023

CHIA reports annually on relative price to examine provider price variation in Massachusetts. Relative Price (RP) facilitates comparison of average provider prices while accounting for differences in patient acuity, the types of services providers deliver to patients, and the different insurance product types (e.g., HMO, PPO) that payers offer to their members.

In August 2023, CHIA published relative price results with data through CY 2021 for Massachusetts hospitals and physician groups. CHIA also produced an interactive  dashboard which enables users to explore this data in more detail. 

DataMatters (July 2023)
datamatters July 2023

Two things distinguish CHIA in the pursuit of improving the Massachusetts health care system: our public-interest perspective, and our unique data sets. CHIA's data sets are unique because as the state agency responsible for a number of health care statistics, we have the ability to collect information necessary to fulfill this responsibility.

The July 2023 issue of DataMatters highlights hospital data used to produce the Massachusetts Quarterly Hospital Financial Performance Report and our latest Hospital Health System Profiles publication. 

Hospital Health System Profiles (July 2023)
Hospital Health System Profiles July 2023

Hospital Health System Profiles provide a summary of financial performance and relative size of component entities for the hospital health system and their affiliated acute hospitals, physician organizations, and health plans.

This report highlights the importance of differentiating the financial health and status of acute care hospitals from their parent organizations. The report also includes an interactive dashboard.