HC4HR
HC4HR: Health CEOs Visit the White House
After sharing their stories with Congress at our recent event, the Health CEOs for Health Reform traveled down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House to spread the word about the achievability of health system reform.
Dr. Gary Kaplan, Chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason Medical Center, and Lloyd Dean, President and CEO of Catholic Healthcare West, were part of a select group of provider and clinician leaders invited to meet with top health care aides to the president, Nancy-Ann DeParle and Valerie Jarrett.
HC4HR: Making Quality Health Care Affordable for All
With the debate over how to credibly finance health reform taking center stage, Health CEOs for Health Reform released Realigning U.S. Health Care Incentives to Better Serve Patients and Taxpayers at an event on Capitol Hill last Friday.
The detailed recommendations emphasize a need to refocus health care delivery on the patient and move away from fee-for-service medicine. Most notably, Health CEOs for Health Reform recommend that providers be held accountable to reasonable cost and quality standards at a specified date, guaranteeing that health reform will slow the rate of Medicare cost growth. Health CEOs for Health Reform make clear that significant savings and a more sustainable health system are eminently feasible. We have to look no further than our own backyards to prove it is possible.
The event also featured remarks from the Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy-Ann DeParle, who commended the group for it's courage and innovation tackling these issues. Below are some highlights from the event. Complete video coverage of the event is also available.
HEALTH REFORM: The Health Care CEOs Reality Show
We had our well-attended event on Health CEOs for Health Care Reform Friday. We'll post a video summary and more details soon, but we have one point we want to make right now:
A lot of people in Washington (and on certain op-ed pages around the country) are talking about health care delivery reform as though it were a theoretical construct taken from an academic journal, as though we aren't really sure what it is or what it can be or whether it can happen in the real world.
In fact it is already happening in the real world. And these CEOs are part of what's happening out there—high quality patient-centered care.
At less cost. For as OMB director Peter Orszag said on his blog, we know how to achieve real savings, not "speculative" savings.
In big ways and small, forward-looking health care organizations like the Health CEOs for Health Reform (and they aren't the only ones) are showing us what's possible. They are moving away from silos of disconnected specialty care, and toward integrated, coordinated care that works for patients in and out of the hospital. They are employing health IT in ways that advance the quality of care, reduce errors and help doctors and patients manage chronic conditions together.
EVENT: Today - Health CEOs for Health Reform
Today was a light blogging day for the New Health Dialogue. This afternoon, we were at the Capitol Vsitors Center for an event, Health CEOs for Health Reform: Making Quality Healthcare Affordable for All.
At the event, HC4HR leaders discussed transformative, patient-centered reforms, explained how bold incentives can make health care affordable and how their own experience proves a sustainable, value-based system is achievable. Opening remarks were delivered by Nancy-Ann DeParle, the Director of the White House Office of Health Reform.
We'll catch you up on Monday....
HEALTH REFORM: Health Leaders Exercising Leadership - Now
I am heartened to see health reform on the move. Today, Health CEOs for Health Reform will explain exactly why and how we can and should expect health care leaders to work together to make Americans healthier, while bending the health care cost growth curve. A credible roadmap to reduce health care cost growth will help us achieve both bipartisan reform and fiscal balance.
Information on the event (12:30pm, Senate side of the Capitol Visitors Center) is available here and their specific set of recommendations are available here.
Health CEOs for Health Reform leaders are committed to providing everyone—including our most vulnerable—the highest quality most efficient care. They are courageous because they are willing to:
HEALTH REFORM: Dr. Patricia Gabow on Moving Toward More Integrated Models of Care
In a lead up to the release of the White House Council of Economic Adviser’s report on the economic case for health reform, the Committee for Economic Development co-hosted an excellent policy forum on The Business Case for National Health Care Reform with the Rocky Mountain PBS
Patricia Gabow, MD, the CEO and Medical Director of Denver Health—the principal safety-net provider for the Denver metropolitan area—described the organization's experience building an integrated model of care (see chart after the break) to serve the region’s most vulnerable populations.
Gabow a founding member of Health CEOs for Health Reform will in Washington D.C. next Friday, June 12 to discuss a package of transformative, patient-centere
HEALTH REFORM: The Role of Providers in Delivery System Reform
Following the release of the Finance Committee's proposals for reforming America's health care delivery system, we asked Gary Kaplan, MD, to weigh in on the role of providers in leading our country toward a high-value health system. As the Chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason Health System, Kaplan has extensive experience with what's possible and what needs to be done to reform health care in the U.S. As one of the founding members Health CEOs for Health Reform, Kaplan is part of a group of health industry CEOs and physicians committed to being proactive leaders in calling for transformative reforms of our health system.
HEALTH REFORM: Prospects Remain High for 2009
This post appears on the National Journal's Health Care Experts Blog where you can also see what other health policy analysts have to say on Health Information Technology.
The prospects for health reform in 2009 are still high, despite Senator Daschle’s withdrawal and the worsening economy. In fact, the economic crisis has made the case for reform even more compelling. Indeed, it is useful to remember that the health reform debate is far larger than any one man or woman and the underlying reasons for reform are unchanged.
HEALTH REFORM: Yes We Can and Yes They've Already Started
A few weeks ago, New America hosted an event with Health CEOs for Health Reform—a diverse coalition of health care leaders that New America has helped organize. Some of those execs later participated at a similar gathering hosted by the Committee for Economic Development, New America, Better Health Care Together, and the McKinsey Global Institute. One of the execs, Dr. Gary S. Kaplan, Chairman and CEO of the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, posted on the Health Care Blog about what he, his organization and like-minded colleagues involved in Health CEOs for Health Reform are going to do to bring about change.
"Our goals are lofty and the challenges immense. What struck me in recent months, with the current state of the economy, is the tremendous sense of urgency we all feel and the confidence we have that now is the time to truly transform health care," he writes. Read his essay "CEOs Urgent, Shared Commitment to Change" here.
COST: The Business Case for Health Reform (Part II)
Yesterday, we relayed the framework and fodder of a discussion we co-hosted with the Committee for Economic Development and Better Health Care Together on the business case for health reform. Today, we'll focus on the discussion.
First, a brief recap: the discussion centered on a new analysis by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) on U.S. health care spending.
Basically the U.S. spends a lot on health care—$2.1 trillion in 2006. That's more than all the citizens of China spent on personal consumption, according to McKinsey. This spending doesn't just reflect that health care is a normal good and that when income increases we tend to spend more. At least $650 billion of our spending cannot be explained by greater levels of wealth. Instead, it seems the way we pay for and deliver health care in the U.S. creates incentives for inefficiencies, overuse, and excess spending.
Map & Directions • Additional Contact Info
