January 24, 2017
The Honorable Paul Ryan
Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232 The Capitol
Washington D.C. 20515
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
S-230 The Capitol
Washington D.C. 20510
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Office of the Democratic Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
H-204 The Capitol
Washington D.C. 20515
The Honorable Chuck Schumer
Senate Minority Leader
U.S. Senate
S-221 The Capitol
Washington D.C. 20510
Dear Speaker Ryan, Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader Pelosi:
On behalf of the nation’s leading clinicians, employers, hospitals, biopharmaceutical companies, pharmacists, patients, consumer groups and insurance providers, we are writing to underscore our commitment to advancing the highest quality, most cost-effective healthcare system in the world. We call upon Congress and the Trump Administration to help us achieve this goal.
Healthcare has been operating in a fee-for-service system designed more than 50 years ago. Over the years, the regulations governing this system have grown extraordinarily complex. This
complexity hampers efforts of clinicians and other healthcare providers who have been diligently working to measurably improve quality, reduce costs and take accountability for populations of patients. Despite these impediments, organizations have made significant investments in building and testing alternative payment models that are designed to move healthcare forward to promote value.
This work has been spurred by nearly two decades of bipartisan leadership and was most
recently accelerated by this Congress’ overwhelming passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP
Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Through private and public sector alignment, the move toward
value-based care is succeeding, measurably improving healthcare quality and contributing to
historically low costs. Now is not the time for policymakers to signal a shift away from value-based care, either through action or inaction.
We, the undersigned, strongly support this movement and are committed to working with
Congress and the Trump Administration to build the next generation of healthcare policy. As you take up the mantle of addressing the challenge of improving quality while safely reducing costs, we strongly urge you to continue focusing on driving value-based, patient-centered payment models that incent healthcare innovation. Together, we share a vision for a modernized, sustainable healthcare system based on the following principles:
- Empower and engage patients to make healthcare decisions with information and support from their healthcare team.
- Invest in engaging patients in the development of measures of provider performance that
are relevant to them and consistently and transparently reported by all public and private
payers. - Improve clinician and provider access to timely, accurate and complete claims data to
better facilitate care management. - Recognize that the socioeconomic status of many patients creates challenges in providing
care, and adjust payments to providers as appropriate. - Design voluntary payment models that incent greater participation and achieve the
highest quality and cost value based on patient choice and competitive markets. - Expand the use of waivers from fee-for-service legal and regulatory requirements that
impede collaboration and shared accountability, while preserving consumer protections
and safeguards against fraud. - Build on and expand payment models that promote collaborative financial and care
coordination arrangements using incentives that align payers, healthcare providers,
providers of long-term care services and clinicians. - Appropriately incent access to medical innovations and treatments that hold the potential
to improve quality of care and reduce overall system cost. - Promote public and private investment in the transparent, evidence-based testing and
scaling of new alternative payment models as directed in MACRA so that clinicians,
other healthcare providers and payers can learn how payment models work and evolve in
the clinical setting. - Ensure alignment between private and public sector programs, which is critical to a
sustainable value-based payment marketplace.
We stand prepared to work vigorously with the Administration and the Congress to expand upon the quality and cost savings progress made in America, and we look forward to taking the next steps to reach and surpass the tipping point where value-based healthcare becomes a sustainable marketplace for generations of Americans to come.
Sincerely,
Advocate Health Care
Aetna
Aledade, Inc.
Alliance of Community Health Plans
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Nursing
American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
American College of Cardiology
American College of Clinical Pharmacy
American College of Physicians
American College of Surgeons
American Hospital Association
American Medical Association
American Medical Group Association
American Osteopathic Association
American Pharmacists Association
American Society of Anesthesiologists
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
American Society for Radiation Oncology
America’s Essential Hospitals
Amgen
AnMed Health (Anderson, SC)
Anthem
Ascension
Association for Community Affiliated Plans
Association of American Medical Colleges
athenahealth
Aurora Health Care (Milwaukee, WI)
Avera Health (Sioux Falls, SD)
Atrius Health
Banner Health (Phoenix, AZ)
Baptist Health (Louisville, KY)
Billings Clinic (Billings, MT)
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Blue Shield of California
CAPG
Catholic Health Association of the United States
Catholic Health Initiatives
Centra Health
Change Healthcare
Cleveland Clinic
Coalition to Transform Advanced Care
Cone Health
Dartmouth-Hitchcock
Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice
Dignity Health
East Alabama Medical Center (Opelika, AL)
Einstein Healthcare Network (Philadelphia, PA)
Ephraim McDowell Health (Danville, KY)
Evolent Health
Fresenius Medical Care
Genesis Health System (Davenport, IA)
Greenville Health System
Gross Electric
Guthrie County Hospital (Guthrie Center, IA)
Healthcare Financial Management Association
Healthcare Leadership Council
Health Care Transformation Task Force
HealthSouth
Henry Ford Allegiance Health (Jackson, MI)
Heritage Development Organization
Hudson River Healthcare
Humboldt County Memorial Hospital (Humboldt, IA)
Inova Health System (Falls Church, VA)
Johnson & Johnson
LifeBridge Health (Baltimore, MD)
Marshfield Clinic Health System (WI)
McKesson Corporation
Memorial Health (Savannah, GA)
Mended Little Hearts
Merck
Methodist Health System (Dallas, TX)
MetroHealth System (Cleveland, OH)
Midwest Business Group on Health
Mosaic Life Care (St. Joseph, MO)
National Alliance for Healthcare Purchasers
National Association of ACOs
National Coalition on Health Care
National Consumers League
National Committee for Quality Assurance
National Health Council
National Health Law Program
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
National Partnership for Hospice Innovation
National Patient Advocate Foundation
National Physicians Alliance
National Rural Health Association
New Mexico Health Connection
North American Spine Society
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare (Chicago, IL)
OSF HealthCare System
Pacific Business Group on Health
Partners HealthCare
Partners in Care Foundation
PatientPing
Pfizer, Inc.
Premier Inc.
Press Ganey Associates, Inc.
Providence Health and Services
Public Sector HealthCare Roundtable
Randolph Hospital (Asheboro, NC)
Regional Medical Center (Manchester, IA)
Remedy Partners
sanofi
SCAN Health Plan
SCL Health
Silicon Valley Employers Forum
Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Society for Vascular Surgery
SSM Health (St. Louis, MO)
Summa Health System (Akron, OH)
Surescripts
Texas Health Resources (Arlington, TX)
Trinity Health
Tucson Medical Center Healthcare
UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust
URAC
Vantage Healthcare Network (Meadville, PA)
Vizient, Inc.
Washington State Health Care Authority