HLC Chairman: Healthcare System Needs “Real Reform”

In an op-ed in the St. Louis Business Journal, Healthcare Leadership Council chairman Anthony Tersigni, president and CEO of the Ascension Health Alliance, wrote that it’s time for policymakers in Washington, now that the election is over, to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and address the problem of spiraling healthcare costs.

In the op-ed, Tersigni wrote, “We need reform – real reform that creates the healthcare system we deserve, at a price we can manage, in a system we can easily navigate, a system that makes more money by keeping us well than by repeatedly treating our sicknesses.”

Other points made in the op-ed include:

• Even though the PPACA law has flaws, that doesn’t mean its implementation should be stopped. “A wise nation doesn’t throw away the good just because it comes in a package that’s not perfect…Progress is a continuum of steps and demanding that all progress should be made at once will only ensure that no progress will be made at all.”
• His organization, Ascension Health, provided $1.3 billion in charity care last year “so we know that restricting waste – not care – is the key to a better person-centered healthcare system for all.”
• Organizations like Ascension are “making demonstrable progress toward greatly improved systemic healthcare safety, service, quality and efficiency. And the more efficient we become, the greater access to healthcare we’re able to provide.”

The full op-ed can be read here.