Massachusetts Health Care Cost Growth Benchmark Factsheet: Annual Health Care Cost Trends Hearings

To contain health care cost increases, Massachusetts enacted Chapter 224 in 2012, which established a first‐in‐the‐nation target, called a benchmark, for annual growth in total statewide health care spending. Among other things, the law created a Health Policy Commission and granted it authority to hold payers and providers accountable for keeping annual cost growth below the benchmark. To inform other states that have adopted similar cost growth benchmark initiatives, this series of factsheets describes the Health Policy Commission’s four accountability tools and how they have been used to date.

This factsheet is focused on the use of health care cost trends hearings, which convene leading policymakers, health care providers, private and public payers, and analysts to discuss these issues in a public forum. The hearings set a stage for holding health care entities publicly accountable for their organizations' efforts to control spending and enhance quality and equity.