Industry News

On March 29, 2019, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released its newly updated and expanded Health System Dashboard on the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker (The Tracker) website.  The dashboard was compiled by the KFF analysts in consultation with other experts and provides key data on the U.S. health system in four areas:

1) Access and affordability;

2) Health and wellbeing;

3) Health spending; and

4) Quality of care. 

Overall, the dashboard features over 50 indicators of health system performance, such as life expectancy, spending by diagnosis, costs and utilization, and percent of workers in high deductible health plans.  Dashboard users may investigate historical trends, as well as differences and disparities among various demographic groups.

The Tracker, which is a partnership between KFF and the Peterson Center on Healthcare, monitors the U.S. health system’s performance on key quality and cost measures.  The data is compiled from various sources and analyzed by KFF experts.  As new information becomes available, the dashboard tool is updated.

In addition, the KFF has provided a companion brief on the Tracker, U.S. Health System is Performing Better, Though Still Lagging Behind Other Countries.  The brief presents the dashboard’s data and illustrates the current status and historical trends of the U.S. health system’s performance and its progress as compared with similar countries. The findings indicate that the U.S. continues to be outperformed by other countries and some outcomes are worsening such as longevity and disease burden.

Key findings include:

• In 2015, U.S. life expectancy began to decline due in part to opioid overdose death.
• As compared to other similar countries, the U.S. ranks lowest in avoiding deaths that are considered to be preventable with timely and effective health care.
• Due to higher health care prices, the U.S. spends about twice as much as other countries for similar or lower levels of care utilization.
• In recent years, the per capita health spending growth has leveled off and is similar to the growth rate of other countries.  Since 2010, per capita spending has grown at an average rate of 3.7% per year.  In 2017, per capita health spending was $10,739, up from $7,627 in 2007.

The Dashboard is available here.  

The brief is available here.