Looking Towards Denver

Looking Towards Denver

I look forward to joining you next week at your Annual Conference in Denver. This is a transformational time for health policy in the United States. The next several years will bring extraordinary change as we begin the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010. We have policy tools that will allow public hospitals to begin to address the cost, access and quality problems that continue to plague our health marketplace today.

There is much to be done with insurance, payment, and delivery reform, beginning this year.
As the effort unfolds, it will be critical that we appreciate the need for great transparency. Arguably, the health sector is the least transparent of all sectors in the economy. One can’t fix what one can’t see. Perhaps there is no better tool for greater transparency than health information technology (HIT). HIT will allow a far greater degree of information sharing and performance evaluation. It will reduce both administrative errors and cost. In short, it will bring health management from the 19th century into the 21st.

If this were a football field, with the passage of this legislation, we are now on the thirty yard line with seventy yards remaining to our goal line. There will be fumbles, lost yards and plays that could have been executed better. But I have no doubt that we can reach the goal line over time.

As we progress, there are three “P’s” that public hospitals should consider to be effective players on the team.

First, preparation. We must anticipate and prepare for the robust demand for new and better health care services. We must fully understand the implications of the new laws and regulations and be fully prepared to meet them.

Second, pragmatism. Let us demonstrate a pragmatic approach to reform. Something of this magnitude takes time and great effort. We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Let us set reasonable goals and pragmatically set out to attain them.

Third, partnership. It is imperative the public hospitals reach out to other stakeholders, state and local government, the Department of Health and Human Services and many others to be full partners in this historic moment. Only through partnership can the coordination of this effort be successfully accomplished.

Like other major policy challenges of the past including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, this transformation will take many years to complete. But it can produce undeniable advantages to all Americans almost immediately.

How much and how far we go is up to each of us.

Tom Daschle

The Honorable Tom Daschle is the former Senate Majority Leader an author. He will be a keynote speaker at NAPH's Annual Conference in Denver - June 23-25.

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