Bending the Health Care Cost Curve in New York State: Implementation Plan to Expand Palliative Care
October 2010
NYS Health Foundation
This high-level implementation plan is presented as a follow-up to the New York State Health Foundation’s (NYSHealth’s) July 2010 report, “Bending the Health Care Cost Curve in New York State: Options for Saving Money and Improving Care, ” which was designed to inform a State-level discussion of health care savings opportunities in New York. The report outlined the estimated impact of 10 scenarios that could help to contain escalating health care costs in New York State over the next decade while also improving health care quality. With the assistance of a Technical Advisory Panel, four of the modeled scenarios were selected for high-level planning to identify the action steps, timeframes, and resources required for implementation. The scenario presented here deals with expanding palliative care: requiring hospitals to establish a palliative care program to promote better coordinated, higher value care where appropriate.