Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc.

While restructuring the health care system to put the patient first—by both lowering costs and improving quality of services — is often accepted as a bipartisan goal, current policies to assess and pay for health care can spur excess treatment, drive cost inflation, and serve the interests of industry stakeholders rather than those of patients.

NYHealth awarded the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI) a grant to explore tangible payment reforms that would better position patients as customers in the health system.

Under this grant, MI created the MI Working Group on Patient-Focused Payment Reform, comprising thought leaders, economists, and health information technology entrepreneurs to develop a blueprint for implementing patient-focused payment reforms in New York. Through a series of workgroup discussions, MI recommended reforms that focused on the following themes: encouraging greater transparency in health care pricing and quality; enhancing competition in health care services and delivery; and increasing the purchasing power of patients when they access health services. It also explored how the blueprint could be put into action—specifically, how large self-insured employers could serve as incubators for the reform initiatives identified. These discussions led to a consensus paper that MI promoted through the media and at a public event.