A coalition representing hospitals, physicians, health care leaders and patients recently provided Tom Price, the new head of Health and Human Services (HHS), with a "set of principles" meant to help guide his hand on Medicare reform.
The Healthcare Leadership Council (HCL) said the guide is intended to ensure that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation "engages in appropriately-scaled, time-limited demonstration projects, greater transparency, improved data-sharing, and broader collaboration with the private sector."
“Our healthcare system is transitioning, as it should, from fee-for-service to value-based care, and that requires the testing of new ideas to make health care more quality-driven, cost-effective and patient-centered,” HLC President Mary Grealy said. “We need a CMMI, but we also need safeguards to ensure that CMMI adheres to its original intent, that it test innovative payment and delivery approaches without harm to those who deliver and receive healthcare.”
The HLC also stressed the need for engaging stakeholders and cooperating with the private sector, improving data sharing from test results, and permitting voluntary participation in CMMI demonstrations, as well as guaranteeing sufficient patient education.
With approximately 50 members, the Washington-based HCL is a consortium of leaders from America's health care system, including hospitals, health plans, pharmaceutical firms, product distributors, academia and biotech companies.
