At a Capitol Hill briefing Wednesday, the Healthcare Leadership Council recommended six steps the White House, Congress and the healthcare industry can take to immediately improve the country's healthcare system.
The recommendations originate from the Healthcare Leadership Council's National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation initiative, which involves patient advocacy leaders, healthcare providers, insurers, drug company representatives and other industry experts.
During the briefing, the council called for the following six actions:
1. Set a firm date of Dec. 31, 2018, to achieve nationwide health information interoperability.
2. Develop reforms to further enhance the efficacy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by reducing the administrative burdens imposed on the agency.
3. Have Medicare, insurers and healthcare providers implement best practices to improve care for chronically ill patients.
4. Reform outdated physician self-referral and anti-kickback statutes, and expand Medicare payment waiver policies to boost care coordination while preventing fraud and abuse.
5. Standardize the country's privacy laws across Congress, the White House and the states to improve access to patient data for quality healthcare and medical research.
6. Demand CMS improve the Enhanced Medication Therapy Management Model to help the program achieve its goal of improving patients' health.
"These steps aren't revolutionary, but they are transformative," said HLC president Mary R. Grealy. "Innovation is too often put on the back burner when we discuss healthcare policy, but it's critical to elevating health system value, to addressing quality and cost challenges. There are viable, practical, common-sense solutions that can and should be implemented to help make our healthcare system more patient-centered and effective."
According to Ms. Grealy, the HLC has already begun meeting with top Congressional leaders to address these recommendations, and will continue these discussions in the weeks ahead.
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