The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), a coalition of executives representing health providers, insurers, manufacturers and patient advocacy groups, has issued six recommendations it believes can be implemented today to improve healthcare in the U.S.
The coalition, which boasts a robust membership of major healthcare organizations, announced its six “Viable Solutions” to problems facing the nation’s healthcare system in a press release. The reforms are scheduled to be presented at a planned Capitol Hill briefing as part of the group’s National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation initiative.
The HLC recommendations call for:
- A firm date of Dec. 31, 2018, to achieve nationwide health information interoperability with the private sector leading efforts to enable healthcare organizations to share data with each other;
- A series of reforms to further improve the efficacy of the FDA, in part by reducing administrative burdens imposed on the agency, and bring innovative, life-saving treatments and technologies to patients more rapidly;
- Implementation by Medicare, insurers and healthcare providers of best practices to improve all aspects of care for chronically ill patients;
- The federal government to reform outdated physician self-referral and anti-kickback statutes, as well as expand Medicare payment waiver policies, to enable better care coordination while protecting against fraud and abuse;
- Congress, the Administration and states to standardize the nation’s privacy laws and improve access to patient data for quality healthcare and medical research; and
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve its Enhanced Medication Therapy Management Model to help the program deliver on the promise of improving patients’ health.
“These steps aren’t revolutionary, but they are transformative,” said HLC president Mary Grealy. “There are viable, practical, common-sense solutions that can and should be implemented to help make our healthcare system more patient-centered and effective.”
The HLC developed its recommendations over a period of several months following a national summit held in March 2015, and has already held meetings with congressional leaders concerning the proposed steps, with more meetings planned in the weeks ahead.