Published by: Melissa Stafford Jones on 3/24/2011 9:40:25 AM
This post is the sixth in our series of guest entries marking the one-year anniversary of the passage of the health reform law.
As we mark the one year anniversary of the Accountable Care Act, we should celebrate its passage, acknowledge the early successes that have already been achieved and work to ensure its implementation. As we do this, we also need to be prepared for the challenges ahead as we continue the hard work required to prepare for 2014.
For the past decade, public hospital leaders throughout California have implemented successful pilots to test better ways to deliver care. These are the models of care delivery that are essential to becoming providers of choice in a reformed health system -- providing higher quality care that is more efficient, contains costs and improves overall health.
Now, California’s public hospital systems that serve more than 2.5 million patients annually are expanding the scope and magnitude of these pilots, implementing them system wide. They are embarking on multiple, multi-year initiatives to transform their delivery systems. By redesigning how care is provided, they are making it easier for patients to get needed primary and specialty care, thereby decreasing emergency room usage. And they are improving quality through evidence-based models and proven patient safety initiatives.
Public hospital systems are also leading a massive effort in California to expand coverage to as many as 500,000 low-income adults who are going to be eligible for Medicaid in 2014. Under our early coverage expansion program, patients are being assigned to a medical home where they are receiving coordinated, more efficient care tailored to their needs and designed to keep them well and out of the hospital.
Although this work is exciting and critical to the future of health care in our communities, it will be difficult and present significant challenges, some of which have yet to be identified. Success will require leadership, innovation, collaboration and flexibility – a willingness to learn and evolve along the way with a strong commitment to the ultimate goal of high quality, integrated care for all who walk through our doors.
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Melissa Stafford Jones
President & CEO
California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (CAPH)