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3 ways to improve health care

Speakers at health summit discuss methods for reform
Speakers at the fifth annual Health Summit of La Plata County addressed three goals: improving collective health, increasing patient satisfaction and lowering costs.

The fifth annual meeting of La Plata County health-care professionals last week featured presentations about reforms to bring better medical attention to the community at lower costs.

Five speakers took the lectern at the summit sponsored by the Citizens Health Advisory Council at the DoubleTree Hotel.

The focus of health-care reform was laid out by keynote speaker Matt Guy, managing director of Pueblo Triple Aim Corp., which supports the county’s efforts to improve collective health, increase patient satisfaction and lower costs.

The three goals can’t be addressed in isolation, but must mesh in consolidated efforts, Guy said.

A common agenda, shared standards, continuous communication and mutual reinforcement, are key to reform, he said.

“We have to add whoever is not at the table,” he said.

Other speakers were Doug McCarthy, senior research director for the Commonwealth Fund; Bob Kershner, director of health system payment strategies at the Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVIC); Jonathan Mathieu, director of data and research at CIVIC; and Dr. Cecile Fraley, managing partner of Pediatric Partners of the Southwest.

McCarthy looked at health care from the national perspective.

Poor dietary habits, smoking and a high body mass index – the ratio of weight to height – are doing us in, he said.

The United States is No. 1 in the cost of health care, averaging $8,500 per person annually, but the outcome is not as good, McCarthy said.

“We’re inefficient,” he said.

A new approach to health care is needed, McCarthy said. He left the audience with a quote from Albert Einstein: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Mathieu spoke about the development of the All Payers Claims Database, created by legislation in 2008 that requires states to improve health-care transparency by making available to the public information about medical claims filed by payers.

The public is in the dark about health-care costs, he said.

“You can’t understand what you can’t measure,” Mathieu said. “We have to make claims data usable for the public.”

A wealth of information is available at www.comedprice.org, he said.

Kershner presented a 12-minute video summarizing payment reform from a physician’s perspective.

He followed with a description of payment models used in Colorado by Medicare, Medicaid and commercial payers.

Kershner also displayed an analysis and data to help doctors, hospitals and employers grasp the true costs of care in their communities.

Fraley brought the broad picture into sharp focus with a presentation about how Pediatric Partners is employing the goals of Triple Aim.

It’s not been an easy sell, Fraley said, quoting from an article in the Health Affairs journal by three physicians:

“Thus, we face a paradox with respect to pursuit of the Triple Aim. From the viewpoint of the United States as a whole, it is essential; yet from the viewpoint of individual actors responding to current market forces, pursuing the three aims at once is not in their immediate self-interest.”

The mission of Pediatric Partners, established in 2005, Fraley said, is: “Care independent of payer source.”

Access and continuity of care is a given, she said. Appointments are available six days a week, and there are extended office hours.

Electronic health records are readily available for patient families, Fraley said.

daler@durangoherald.com



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