Over 20 leaders in health care from across the country today wrote to Senator Max Baucus and members of the Senate Finance Committee to voice their support of key provisions in proposed legislation, and to offer additional thoughts on moving Medicare to pay for value.
These leaders agree that only way to improve health care delivery and bend the cost curve is to change the payment system so that it rewards providers who offer high quality care at lower cost. They are encouraged by elements of proposed legislation designed to move Medicare in the direction of paying for value rather than volume.
The leaders expressed support for the following specific elements in proposed legislation:
- Setting up guidelines for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs),
- Establishing an Innovation Center within CMS,
- Creating a national strategy to improve the health care quality infrastructure, and
- Sen. Maria Cantwell’s amendment to incentivize value in the Medicare physician payment formula.
In addition, Sen. Baucus was encouraged to consider a more aggressive implementation timetable — not one that starts in 2014 or later, but finishes by 2014 — to allow more immediate financial results for the Medicare system.
Organizations signing the letter to Sen. Baucus included: Altru Health System, American TeleCare, Bellin Health, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Fairview Health Services, Franciscan Skemp Healthcare, Gundersen Lutheran Health System, HealthPartners, Marshfield Clinic, Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center, McFarland Clinic, North Texas Specialty Physicians, Park Nicollet Health Services, Scott & White Healthcare, The Everett Clinic, the University of Minnesota, Virginia Mason Medical Center, the Wisconsin Hospital Association and the Wisconsin Medical Society.
