Kaiser Permanente chairman and CEO George Halvorson delivered his message about delivery system reform and integrated care model, reports GoozNews, to a national forum presented by Kaiser Permanente Health Care Institute and the National Labor College. We hope someone in Congress was listening.

Both KP and organized labor are jointly pushing integrated care models -- using coordinated, team-based care and information technology to provide higher quality care at a lower cost. About a third of Kaiser's nine million members belong to unions, according to GoozNews.

Halvorson and AFL-CIO president John Sweeney "who jointly addressed the opening session of the day long meeting, backed using Medicare to drive greater efficiencies through the entire system and setting up a government-run commission like the Medicare Payments Advisory Commission to reorganize payment policy."

"Changing the way we cover health care, without actually reforming care delivery is a mistake," Halvorson said in a statement. "As a nation, we need to improve access to care, reduce costs and ensure quality care for all. Team-based care, supported by technology, is essential to achieving that vision."

 Halvorson said the delivery system reforms in the current proposed legislation need to be speeded up, saying "the House bill is ‘directionally correct,' but we can get to those goals much faster." GoozNews concluded,

But what fascinated me was that the more than 100 union officials and health care advocates present greeted his recollection of that Capitol Hill interaction with sustained applause. Unions who have those so-called Cadillac plans have no objection to getting their care from integrated systems with salaried physicians. Indeed, based on this limited sample of their leadership, they would appear to prefer it.

To read more about successful delivery system reforms, check our Health CEOs for Health Reform series.