A California agency charged with slowing health costs has set a lofty goal for insurers to direct 15% of their spending to primary care by 2034, part of the state’s effort to expand the primary care workforce and give more people access to preventive care services. This story also ran on . It can be .
The board of the state Office of Health Care Affordability in October set its benchmark well above the industry’s current 7% primary care spending rate, in hopes of improving Californians’ health and for costlier care down the road. “It’s ambitious but achievable,” said Elizabeth Landsberg, director of the state’s Department of Health Care Access and Information, which oversees the affordability agency. “Plans and health systems need time to build the infrastructure to really change the way they’re providing care.
” But California’s target comes just six months after the affordability board set an annual for overall growth in health care spending, potentially squeezing insurers from two sides. “How these two policies will interact is unclear and we believe it is important to not lose sight of our overall goal of reducing the growth of health care costs,” Mary Ellen Grant, a spokesperson for the California Association of Health Plans, said in a statement. The affordability agency argues health plans are best positioned to promote more spending on preventive care services, since insurers are the ones that negotiate payment with providers.
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