We get inundated with reports and issue papers, but every once in a while it’s a good idea to pick one up, review what you know and figure out what you have to learn.

A recent report, “Cracking the Code on Health Care Costs” from a state health cost containment commission organized by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center turned out to be useful for that purpose. It didn’t offer me any brand-spanking new huge ideas but it pulled a lot of trends and data together in one (nonpartisan) place – everything from malpractice reform to end-of-life care, and how they can be addressed at the state level.

If you are an experienced health care reporter, the state sections can still give you some story ideas. If you are a newbie, the report is a pretty good and readable overview. Read the executive summary and then follow up on areas that interest you for stories.

Here are five story ideas I came up with in just a few minutes of looking at the report – you will be able to think of dozens more that affect your community.

How can your state use its purchasing power – as a buyer of health care through Medicaid, CHIP, public sector employees and as a regulator of health plans in the new insurance exchanges – to promote delivery system reforms that will move away from fee for service and toward more coordinated cost effective care?

Is the state moving on any scope-of-practice legislation to allow providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants to expand what they can do and under what kind of physician supervision?

Is the state adding requirements for hospitals and doctors to be more transparent about prices?

Related:

As new year begins, consumers lack data to make informed health care decisions

Keep in mind unintended consequences of price transparency

Report shows how reference pricing brings down costs

The cost of health care: Is transparency possible?

What anti-trust policies does the state have – or lack – to address health care consolidation and mergers?

Does your state have a good handle on local health care spending? Does it have goals for growth (or limiting growth?) What are the benchmarks? Who sets them? How will they be measured?

I also really liked the section (page 33) that gives a concise but powerful overview of just how disorganized the health care system is. This is a topic that can be illustrated by describing patient experiences in this world of fragmented care, but here’s a bit of context for such a narrative:

Providers offer different services in different locations. Each retains his or her own patient information, billing procedures, and approaches to care. Minimal clinical information on patients is transferred across care settings, and consultation among providers is infrequent. The result: unnecessary and redundant services, errors and rehospitalizations, delays in treatment, patient dissatisfaction, and excessive expense.

That includes failure to give patients test results, failure to tell other physicians about a patient’s test results, or medical history, and communication gaps between primary care physicians and specialists. Find anyone who has had a serious or chronic illness, and they will be able to tell you lots of stories.