AHRQ releases it's state health rankings once a year. Wisconsin and Minnesota have been competing at the top for years and this year Minnesota won out in a close race. There are many good things happening in both of these states including transparency initiatives, lean healthcare, and major payment reform initiatives. Those that argue these states just have better demographics should know that in Wisconsin alone there were 1.1 million medicaid members in 2011. That is nearly 20% of the population at the poverty level yet look at what can be achieved when a collaborative multistakeholder group in a whole state works together to deliver better health.
There is much that remains to be done but these results give others hope that it's possible to improve the health of an entire state.
http://statesnapshots.ahrq.gov/snaps11/overall_quality.jsp?menuId=5&state=WI&level=0®ion=0&compGroup=N&compRegion=-1
Leave a Reply