Healthcare Leadership Council

Delivery System Reform

Issue: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) included numerous provisions designed to foster an integrated approach to aligning incentives in the delivery system and improving patient outcomes.  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), primarily through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), continues to draft and implement regulations regarding many delivery system reform provisions of PPACA.  The concept of care coordination permeates many of these provisions and provides the foundation for efforts to promote patient-centered care, such as Accountable Care Organizations and the medical home model.  Properly utilized, health information technology and data exchange can facilitate care coordination efforts, as well as quality collection and reporting measures.

HLC Position: HLC members have led the way toward a higher quality healthcare system by being some of the first adopters of these tools and approaches.  The health reform law has taken steps to encourage and reward quality, safety, and efficiency and avoid policies that result in poor outcomes for patients and consumers.  HLC continues to emphasize the positive role of the private sector in coordinating care to deliver patient-centered, evidence-based care that improves value. 

Delivery System Reform Issue Paper

HLC Key Recent Activity on Delivery System Reform: 

• HLC routinely monitors and talks with CMS staff regarding ongoing initiatives at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
• HLC member CEOs were invited to attend the October Value Incentives Learning Collaborative meeting of the IOM to share their insight on scaling up and spreading value incentives and related pilots. 
• HLC hosted staff from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to discuss the office’s data segmentation and query health initiatives. 
• In September, HLC released an expanded edition of the HLC Value Compendium.  The second edition includes additional examples from member companies highlighting private-sector initiatives that promote value and will be used to promote value-oriented efforts taking place in the private sector.
• In January, HLC presented the first edition of the HLC Value Compendium to former CMS Administrator Don Berwick.
• HLC participated in the Partnership for Patients National Priorities Partnership meeting this September. 
• HLC also participated in the National Quality Forum’s Leadership Colloquium in September.
• HLC participates in the ongoing National Priorities Partnership Patient Safety webinar series.
• HLC submitted comments on the proposed regulations governing accountable care organizations participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
• The Healthcare Leadership Council is among the organizations that signed the administration’s Partnership for Patients pledge “to join in a shared effort to save thousands of lives, stop millions of injuries and take important steps toward a more dependable and affordable healthcare system.”
• HLC joined former HHS Secretaries Tommy Thompson and Dr. Louis W. Sullivan in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. urging the justices to strike down state laws that raise unnecessary barriers obstructing the flow of important healthcare information.
• The HLC Policy Committee hosted staff from the newly established Federal Coordinated Health Care Office to discuss its efforts to coordinate care for individuals dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. 
• HLC continues to track the work of the HHS HIT Policy Committee as it drafts requirements for subsequent stages of the meaningful use EHR Incentive Program.
• HLC continues to communicate with key moderates in the House and Senate regarding the need for continued improvements in healthcare delivery payment policies.
• HLC continues to participate in the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative initiative, which aims to develop and advance the patient-centered medical home.
• HLC is a member of the National eHealth Collaborative, which seeks to drive the grassroots development of a secure, interoperable, nationwide health information system.
• HLC continues to monitor the IOM Roundtable on Value and Science-Driven Health Care, which convenes leadership from key healthcare sectors to catalyze the collaborative work needed to drive improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of medical care, by transforming how evidence is developed and used in healthcare.