Tennessee Delegation, Administration Officials Address Leadership Health Care During the second day of Leadership Health Care’s (LHC) annual trip to Washington, DC, 100 of Nashville’s emerging healthcare leaders heard from members of the Tennessee delegation to Congress, as well as key members of the Obama Administration, about the healthcare topics that are shaping policy discussions in the nation’s capital. Tennessee Delegation Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) kicked off the day’s sessions. Alexander discussed his work as chairman of the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (see related article here), including trying to find ways to shorten the time and cost associated with bringing a new medical treatment, pharmaceutical or device from the discovery and development phase to the physician’s office or medicine cabinet. Corker discussed work with U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Burwell on a long-term fix to Disproportionate Hospital Share (DSH) payments for Tennessee, which is the only state that doesn’t have a permanent DSH solution. And Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) delivered a talk on fraud and waste in the healthcare system, providing an overview of the laws — such as the False Claims Act whistleblower protection and the Stark law’s Anti-Kickback Statute — that are intended to eliminate costly fraud but actually create more problems than they solve. “If we cleaned up the laws, there would be less fraud, but also the government would be saving a whole lot more money,” Cooper said. “And that’s my goal, to save money.” Administration Insight LHC members also heard from Meena Seshamani, MD, director of HHS’ Office of Health Reform and Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, National Coordinator for HIT and Acting Assistant Secretary of HHS about topics surrounding the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and health information technology initiatives. Seshamani provided an overview of consumerism in the health insurance marketplaces, discussing the successes of the most recent health insurance open enrollment period and the ongoing work to reach new enrollees to encourage use of those plans. She talked about her office’s desire to work with states that are interested in expanding Medicaid, noting that $4.2 billion of the $5.7 billion of uncompensated care costs that were eliminated because of the expansion of insurance coverage came in states that expanded Medicaid. And she outlined steps being taken to reform the healthcare delivery system, including incentives to reward value over volume, initiatives encouraging providers to deliver better coordinated care and improving the distribution of information so providers can make better care decisions. On the health information technology front, DeSalvo discussed the activities of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in advancing the interoperability and usability of health data so providers can more easily share patient health data and use the information to provide better care, reduce costs, improve population health and advance scientific initiatives like precision medicine. The key ingredients to achieving interoperability, she said, are to “standardize the standards,” create incentives to use the standards, and to create a “trust environment” where providers and consumers understand expectations around security and privacy. “I feel really strongly that we need to unlock this data,” DeSalvo said, noting that consumers know the data is useful and are frustrated that they have to keep filling out forms on a clipboard at their doctors’ office and can’t get their children’s immunization records when they’re trying to sign up for school. “We know the data is there,” she said. “We just have to find a way to get the data to move.”
