Dr. Robert Pearl, MD, Chairman and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group and the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, was recently interviewed by Bloomberg BNA’s Alex Ruoff about a primer on health care issues produced by the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), which Dr. Pearl chairs. The primer was written for political candidates at all levels of elected office, and encouraged candidates to think beyond the success or failure of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) when considering health care policy.
The primer identified three issues that all elected officials should learn about to make the best policy decisions for their constituents. These include value-based reimbursement for doctors and hospitals, robust and coordinated use of health information technology, and improved quality measurement and reporting.
Dr. Pearl said in the article that neither Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump has spent much time discussing these topics during their speeches or in their official platforms.
“Both candidates have commented on the exchanges and the price of drugs, but there hasn’t been a discussion about the big changes needed in health care,” he said.
According to the article, although Medicare is already moving doctors into value-based payment systems, CAPP wants the candidates to commit to accelerating the pace of change and push for global capitation in which doctors are paid a flat rate based on the size and health of their patient population instead of for each service they provide.
The article goes on to assert that this shift could help to reduce the annual growth in Medicare spending, which according to the 2016 Medicare Trustees Report, is expected to increase as a portion of overall gross domestic product from its current level of 3.6 percent to 5.6 percent by 2040.
“When you look at what we’re spending on health care, it’s unclear why we’re not talking about changing payments,” Pearl said.
Source: Ruoff, Alex. Why Hasn’t Clinton or Trump Talked About Health IT? Bloomberg BNA, 31 August 2016.
