Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center: Participants Advocate Insurance for All, Interoperable Electronic Medical Records and Payment Reform as Priorities for Change in American Health Care

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

LEESBURG, VA. — Participants gathered at the Mayo Clinic National Symposium on Health Care Reform ranked insuring all Americans; creating universal clinical information technology systems; and paying providers based on outcomes and prevention as top priorities for creating a true system of health care in the United States.

During the past two days, Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center convened more than 400 patients and health care thought leaders in Leesburg, Va., to create patient-centered health care reform action plans based upon common principles and prioritize a handful of policy recommendations for the next president.

"All sectors and stakeholders must make sacrifices in order for health reform to work," said Robert Smoldt, executive director of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. "Participants at this event made those compromises and focused on solutions that will best meet the needs of patients."

Pat Mitchell, chief executive officer of The Paley Center for Media and a member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, and Smoldt, co-hosted the meeting. Leaders from academia, business, government, health care, media and patient advocacy contributed to the proposals. Participant slots were allocated to create a balanced representation.

"I have never been in a room in America where people could really change health care," said Don Berwick, M.D., Institute for Healthcare Improvement. "Today, I am."

Over the last two years, Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center has gathered hundreds of national thought leaders for a series of events to help develop new, consensus-driven principles to guide the reform process.
Participants recommended four areas of focus: insurance for all, coordinated care, value and payment reform. Using these cornerstones as a baseline, participants at the Virginia symposium developed a handful of action steps for the private sector and the next president/Congress to address.

Recommended actions include:

Private sector action steps:

• Payment Reform
  Make the case for payment reform with properly aligned incentives (outcomes, prevention, wellness, "virtual" appointments, etc.).
  
• Universal Clinical IT
  Establish universal use of interoperable electronic clinical information technology systems (systems that can share information).
  
• High-Cost Service Program
  Develop care programs for high-impact/high-cost services (end-of-life care, chronic diseases, etc).
  
• Coordinating Care Team
  Incent delivery model which provides a defined care coordinator for chronic and acute conditions (i.e. medical home).

Government sector action steps:

• Insurance for All
  Ensure/mandate insurance coverage for all.
  
• Interoperable EMR
  Require all providers to have interoperable electronic medical records within a certain time (4-5 years) with patient accessibility.
  
• Pay for Value
  Direct Medicare to pay for value/outcomes/prevention using innovative payment models.
  
• Federal Health Reserve
  Implement an independent "Federal Health Reserve Board" to set rules/standards to promote value in health care.
  
• Care Coordination
  Reward care coordination (whether provided by primary care provider, specialist or other caregiver).

"Everybody comes here representing a specific agenda," said participant Clarion Johnson, M.D., Exxon Mobil. "But through this process, everyone can leave a winner."

Following this symposium, the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center will convene smaller, cross-sector groups to formulate and implement more detailed action plans to accomplish the larger group's top priorities.

"We now share a common, actionable blueprint for advancing patient-centered health care reform in both the public and private sectors," said Denis Cortese, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. "As we move forward with the initiative, we will expand our circle of collaborators and join forces with other organizations that have mutual aims to drive change."

For more detailed information about symposium results, visit www.mayoclinic.org/healthpolicycenter
or the symposium blog at healthpolicyblog.mayoclinic.org.

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