Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117347

Paul Parker, MPH, Maryland Health Care Commission, 4521 Canterbury Road, Baltimore, MD 21215, 301-7643261, peparker9@aol.com

The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) was formed through merger of two commissions with divergent missions. MHCC is a hybrid reflecting two distinct approaches to improving health care, often juxtaposed by health policy prescriptionists as divergent and incompatible; · MHCC inherited the mission of regulating medical facility capital investment, a CON program. This “command-and-control” style program acts directly on resource allocation by medical facilities and is often viewed as counterproductive “competition-based reform” of the health care market; and · MHCC also carrys forward a more recent state agency function fitting within the competitive reform strategy. MHCC develops and disseminates information on HMO and health care provider performance and quality. It has also initiated a review of models for quality improvement in cardiovascular care. This may lead to public reporting of facility/practitioner outcome data similar to some other states.

This session will assess the use of evidence-based principles and standards in carrying out these two agency roles, reviewing methods and data used in CON and performance reporting to: · Structure policy, survey, and reporting activities; · Evaluate program efficacy; and · Reform, expand, or contract the programs, based on evaluation.

Limitations in using evidence-based principles and standards and the interplay of interest group politics will be explored.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants should gain an understanding of the “state-of-the-art” in state agency use of evidence-based principles and standards in these two widely used state-level approaches to improving health care delivery.

Keywords: Planning, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.