Becker’s Hospital Review
An analysis of state health system performance revealed Hawaii is the top-ranked state for access to healthcare, quality of care and other key measures.
The Commonwealth Fund’s “2020 Scorecard on State Health System Performance” assessed all 50 states and the District of Columbia on 49 performance indicators grouped into four dimensions: access and affordability, prevention and treatment, potentially avoidable hospital use and cost, and healthy lives. The data used for the scorecard is from before the emergence of COVID-19. Access additional information about the performance indicators here.
The annual scorecard showed Americans are living shorter lives than they did in 2014 and are dying in greater numbers from treatable conditions. Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kentucky and Mississippi had the biggest increase in premature death rates between 2012 and 2013 and from 2016 to 2017.
The report also found that Black Americans are twice as likely to die from treatable conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and appendicitis, as white Americans. Though these disparities were found in every state, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma reported the highest rates of premature deaths among the Black community.
The report also looked at healthcare prices. It revealed the prices commercial insurers paid for hospital inpatient care were higher than Medicare prices in every state. Because insurers often pass along higher costs to employers in the form of higher premiums and deductibles, the report concluded that healthcare prices are driving spending growth and rising consumer healthcare costs.