Aetna Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Hartford managed care provider Aetna Inc., is investing $331,133 in a project to explore how to extract the best value from health care.
The grant will support a year-long study by the Brookings Institution’s Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform.
Aetna Foundation Chairman Ronald Williams said the study parallels growing demand from employers and taxpayers who foot the annual $2.3 trillion tab for healthcare to be certain they are getting the best, most efficient care for their dollars.
That has led, Williams said, to fresh thinking about approaches and delivery of health care. One of those is Medicare, which is testing payments for “medical home” services, Aetna said.
In 2008, the federal health plan for the elderly initiated a program in  to no longer pay hospitals for the cost of care associated with preventable hospital-based infections, mistakes, or injuries.
The Brookings project, which ends in April 2011, will convene experts to recommend strategic approaches to value-based purchasing.
The goal, Aetna said, is to develop an implementation approach that will improve quality and reduce costs system-wide through the close collaboration of public- and private-sector stakeholders.
