This Commonwealth Fund report presents the results of the 2009 State Scorecard on Health System Performance, assessing states’ performance in health care access, quality, cost, and outcomes.  The report found that states’ performance continues to vary widely; however, all states face rising health care costs and poor care coordination.  The report notes that Vermont, Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Nebraska were the overall highest performers; however, the scorecard does not yet reflect the effects of the recession because of a reporting lag. 

From the report:

Focused on identifying opportunities to improve, The Commonwealth Fund’s State Scorecard on Health System Performance assesses states’ performance on health care relative to achievable benchmarks for 38 indicators of access, quality, costs, and health outcomes. The 2009 State Scorecard paints a picture of health care systems under stress, with deteriorating health insurance coverage for adults and rising health care costs. On a positive note, there were gains in children’s coverage as a result of national reforms, and improvement in some measures of hospital and nursing home care following federal efforts to publicly report quality data. The scorecard highlights persistent wide variation in performance across states and continued evidence of poor care coordination. Increasing cost pressures and deterioration in access across the U.S., together with geographic disparities in performance, underscore the urgent need for comprehensive national reforms to ensure access, change the trajectory of costs, and enhance value.

Full report: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2009/Oct/2009-State-Scorecard.aspx?page=all

The Commonwealth Fund. (2009). Aiming higher: results from a state scorecard on health system performance, 2009. McCarthy, D., How, S.K.H., Schoen, C., Cantor, J.C., and Belloff, D.