Ohio spends more per resident than all but 13 states on health care, yet has the 42nd healthiest work force.Greg Moody, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation, shared these statistics to illustrate his point that the way health care is provided and funded needs to change.“If you’re thinking about where to locate your new plant, 41 states have a healthier work force,” he said.Moody was among the featured speakers Friday at Summa Health System’s annual Community Leadership Meeting. About 200 business, community and government leaders attended the event at the Akron-Summit County Public Library in downtown Akron.Emily Friedman, a national health policy and ethics analyst, said the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in June whether portions or all of the federal health-care reform law should stand.But given the fact that roughly 50 million Americans are uninsured and many others don’t have adequate access to care even if they have coverage, something needs to change, she said.Friedman shared the story of a 12-year-old Maryland boy whose mother searched unsuccessfully for someone willing to treat his tooth pain. The boy ended up dying from an infection that a hospital spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to treat, she said.“We can do better than that,” Friedman said.During his presentation, Summa President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Strauss revealed the health system provided $103.5 million in “community benefit” last year.The total includes $23 million in net charity care, $27.5 million in bad debt and $19 million in unpaid costs for Medicaid patients by Akron City, St. Thomas, Barberton, Wadsworth-Rittman and Robinson Memorial hospitals, as well as Summa’s physician practices.“What do these numbers mean? More than 66,000 visits with patients,” Strauss said. “These visits include mammograms, X-rays for injuries, medications dispensed, diseases treated, lives improved, lives saved.”Strauss also talked about the health system’s goal of improving quality and safety while reducing cost — a concept the speakers agreed hospitals and other health-care providers need to embrace.“Our goal is to truly transform care delivery by providing coordinated, high-quality, medically necessary care and support services to patients across the health-care continuum,” Strauss said. “We are on a path to transform from volume-driven to value-driven health care.”The state is exploring ways Medicaid, the Public Employees Retirement System, Administrative Services, Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation and Corrections can pool their purchasing power for the $17 billion worth of health services they fund to demand better quality and outcomes, Moody said.Another goal of the state is to modernize the Medicaid program and find ways to better coordinate and streamline care for the 5 percent of the sickest patients who are responsible for about half the program’s costs, he said. Too often, care is provided in a disjointed manner by different health-care providers and programs.“For a lot of folks in that situation, they’re expensive because the system failed them,” he said.Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell.