Alaska Healthcare Transformation Project

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Problem

How can Alaskans work together to manage costs, while improving the quality of health care delivery and population health for all of its residents?

As the largest and least densely populated state, Alaska faces unique challenges in ensuring access to affordable health care services for its residents. The cost of health care in Alaska was on an upward trajectory, at a rate faster than that seen in the United States overall. The Alaska Healthcare Transformation Project provided an opportunity to assess past reform efforts in the state, learn from the experiences of other states, and identify next steps to craft a comprehensive strategy for delivery system reform.

Solution

NORC and its partners conducted rapid, mixed methods studies to provide the Alaska Healthcare Transformation Project with actionable information.

NORC led a team to advise the Alaska Healthcare Transformation Project on next steps in health care reform for the state, focusing on three reciprocal goals: reducing the per capita cost of care across multiple payers, enhancing health care delivery, and improving population health. The project’s reform focus areas included primary care, care coordination, data analysis, payment processes, and social determinants of health.

Together with our local academic partners, the Institute of Social and Economic Research and the College of Health's Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage, NORC conducted a meta-analysis of recent reports and studies on delivery system and payment reform in Alaska. These included:

A historical scan of health reform experiments in the state since 2008
A national review to develop case studies and lessons learned in states that have implemented delivery-system reforms of interest to Alaska
An assessment of cost drivers and spending in the state

Results

NORC presented findings to the Alaska Healthcare Transformation Project partners and Alaska State Legislature.

Based on these analyses and considering the unique opportunities and challenges in Alaska, NORC produced a series of reports with short-term and long-term recommendations for the state to reduce spending. NORC presented findings to the Alaska Legislature to inform future reform efforts in the state.