Coalition for Better Care
We have formed a coalition to improve the payment, organization, and delivery of care. We represent employer groups, private health plans, public purchasers, medical groups, health systems, specialists, quality improvement organizations, academics, and other leaders in health policy and practice. Our core view is that continuously improving, prepaid, team-based care will provide more affordable, equitable, higher value, patient-centered care to all.
This is not a new concept. Rather, it has long enjoyed broad support among healthcare leaders and policymakers. Yet, despite many successful examples of continuously improving high quality, equitable, prepaid, team-based care, they have so far failed to scale across the country. The unique contribution which our coalition will pursue is to support public and private initiatives to hasten progress toward this ideal. To this end, we have identified three important opportunities to support implementation of high quality, continuously improving, equitable, prepaid, team-based care:
- Quality Excellence Certification. Formal certification of continuously improving, equitable, team-based care will serve as a badge of honor for providers that meet rigorous criteria, including a sensitivity to the social drivers of health, and a guiding star for patients and purchasers (employers, health plans and public payers). While a range of certification may be helpful, the top rank would recognize only those payer/provider arrangements which achieve real excellence.
- Global Budgeting: prepayment for comprehensive care of an identified population. While some accountability for prepaid, population-based health applies to most public program beneficiaries, including Medicare Advantage and Medicaid and Medicare ACOs, private sector payment is still largely fee for service; even most ACO risk arrangements are weak by comparison with fee for service payment incentives. We aim to strengthen prepayment in public and private purchasing.
- Patient Safety & Outcomes Reporting. Decades after the IOM’s report, To Err Is Human, patient safety remains a critical concern. The spread of electronic health records ought to enable development of a national system for patient safety tracking, outcomes reporting and improvement. Given the threat to patients from millions of mistakes and failures each year, and the large variations in risk-adjusted outcomes among providers, a rapid, systemic and nationwide approach to outcomes and safety events reporting should be a priority for improving care.
With the support of a growing coalition focused on advancing these three priorities, we aim to help transform the American healthcare system. To join the coalition, fill out and submit the form below.
