Mayo Clinic “Model” Highlighted in Washington Post

September 20, 2009 – 2:12 pm

An article in today’s Washington Post, entitled “Is the Mayo Clinic a Model or a Mirage? Jury is Still Out” highlights Mayo Clinic and similar institutions as part of the national health reform debate.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Mayo Clinic looms out of the prairie here like the mecca it has become, a world-renowned medical complex that is often cited by President Obama as his model for national heath-care reform.

“Look at what the Mayo Clinic is able to do. It’s got the best quality and the lowest cost of just about any system in the country,” Obama said in Minneapolis this month. “So what we want to do is we want to help the whole country learn from what Mayo is doing. . . . That will save everybody money.”

Read the rest of the article here.

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Mayo Clinic CEO Denis Cortese, M.D. on Health Care Reform at the National Press Club

September 18, 2009 – 1:52 pm

Dr. Denis Cortese, President & CEO of the Mayo Clinic, discussed health care reform at the National Press Club (NPC) on Sep. 18, 2009.  He emphasized the importance of both health insurance and health care delivery reform and the critical need to appropriately reward providers that deliver high quality, affordable health care.  Watch the entire speech on C-SPAN.

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Mayo Clinic CEO Denis Cortese, M.D. interviewed on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal

September 18, 2009 – 1:40 pm

Dr. Cortese appeared on the Washington Journal Sep. 18, 2009 and discussed the clinic’s systems and practices.  Watch the entire interview on C-SPAN.

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Mayo Clinic Comments on Senator Baucus’s Health Reform Bill

September 17, 2009 – 9:27 pm

Mayo Clinic appreciates the hard work and dedication of Senator Baucus in moving the health care reform debate forward.

 Mayo is optimistic about the direction that Senator Baucus’s proposal lays out to ensure access to health insurance for all Americans. The proposed health insurance exchanges and a consumer owned and oriented plan will allow doctors and hospitals to continue to care for their patients, without the restraints of a Medicare-like, price-controlled public plan.

Mayo is pleased to see that the proposal includes elements designed to move Medicare in the direction of paying for value. Value is defined as the equation of quality (outcomes, safety and patient satisfaction) over the cost of care over time.

Provisions in the proposal that move us in this direction include the focus on Accountable Care Organizations, payment bundling pilot projects, and an Innovation Center for Medicare to test new patient-centered delivery and payment models.

Mayo will work with Senators to build upon these provisions and suggest additional ideas on paying for value in the Medicare program, including rewarding value and move toward implementation of programs that do so and using the array of measurement tools already in place to implement.

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Mayo Clinic Reaction to President Obama’s Speech – September 9

September 9, 2009 – 7:43 pm

Mayo Clinic strongly supports President Obama’s call for health insurance reform and health care delivery reform, and agrees with the President’s position that the status quo is not acceptable. We believe that a bipartisan, collaborative approach is essential to achieving significant, patient-centered health care reform.

Mayo Clinic and the many organizations and individuals working with us in the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center are strongly in favor of reform of both health care delivery and health insurance. True health care reform is getting better results for the money spent. Better results for money spent is what we meant by high value health care: better outcomes, safer care, better service and at lower costs over time. And this will translate to better access to medical services for all Americans.

We agree with President Obama’s focus on insuring all Americans and reforming the health care payment reform.

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Mayo Clinic Point of View and Leadership Perspective

August 25, 2009 – 1:08 pm

As the summer Congressional recess draws to a close, we wanted to take this opportunity to refocus and make clear Mayo Clinic’s perspectives on the current health care reform efforts, and offer specific ideas which we think will create significant patient-centered health care reform of improving access to high-quality, affordable health care.

Our Point of View lays out the path we believe health care reform needs to take and what needs to be accomplished to ensure high-quality, affordable, accessible health care for all. The Leadership Perspective is our current take on the health care reform issues of the day including paying for value, insuring everyone, Medicare reform, and the facts about end-of-life care.

By janej | Posted in Insurance, News, Payment Reform, government | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Dr. Cortese on Charlie Rose Show

July 24, 2009 – 8:02 pm

Mayo Clinic CEO Denis Cortese, M.D., was a guest on the Charlie Rose show earlier this week, discussing health care reform. Here is an excerpt of the interview:

You can see the interview in its entirety on the Charlie Rose site.

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Open Letter to Congress

July 22, 2009 – 9:31 am
Mayo Clinic, along with 18 other health care organizations around the country, sent an open letter to Congress on July 22. 

In addition, on July 19, 2009 the Chicago Tribune published “Bending the Curve on Health Spending” authored by Denis Cortese, M.D. and Jeff Korsmo.

 

By Judy Samson | Posted in Patients, Payers, Payment Reform, Value | Comments (11)

Mayo Sees Potential in New IMAC Proposal

July 21, 2009 – 8:35 am

Late yesterday, Mayo Clinic became aware of the concept of development of an Independent Medicare Advisory Council. We applaud the direction of this proposal. We view favorably the concept of an independent body that can move Medicare to a “value- based payment” model.  An independent Medicare advisory commission focused on defining value, measuring it, and finding ways to pay for value could have significant, positive impact on health care for the long term.  While we think the proposal’s timeline of 2014 is too long to wait to see value-based reforms, we look forward to working with the administration on refining and strengthening their new proposal. This, and other, bold concepts have the potential to “bend the cost curve” in U.S. health spending without compromising health.

By janej | Posted in News, Payment Reform, Value | Tagged , , , | Comments (16)

Mayo Clinic’s reaction to House Tri-Committee bill

July 16, 2009 – 7:59 am

Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite.

In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or results oriented. Lawmakers have failed to use a fundamental lever – a change in Medicare payment policy – to help drive necessary improvements in American health care. Unless legislators create payment systems that pay for good patient results at reasonable costs, the promise of transformation in American health care will wither. The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.

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