Operational Excellence

June 11, 2009

Health Industry Leaders Meet to Discuss Payment and Health Care Delivery Reform

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From left to right: Murray Ross, director, Kaiser Institute for Health Policy; John H. Cochran, MD, FACS, executive director of The Permanente Federation, Francis J. Crosson, MD, chair of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices, senior fellow at the Kaiser Institute for Health Policy, and current chair, Medicare Payment Advisory Committee.


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From left to right: Alain Enthoven, professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Nancy McClure, senior vice president, HealthPartners Medical Group; Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director, RAND Health.

Renowned academics, health industry leaders, policymakers, and leaders of some of the most prestigious physician groups across the country met June 5 in Washington, D.C., to tackle the contentious issues plaguing payment and health care delivery reform.

Effective payment and delivery system policies are critical to the success of efforts to overhaul the U.S. health care system. With the goal of developing policy and payment recommendations that can improve quality and reduce costs, the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, the Council of Accountable Physician Practices — an affiliate of the American Medical Group Association — and The Commonwealth Fund co-sponsored this “Roundtable of Payment and Health Care Delivery Reform.”

Chaired by Dr. Francis J. Crosson, the chair of CAPP, Senior Fellow at the Kaiser Permanente Institute of Health Policy, and current vice-chair of MedPAC, and Stuart Guterman of the Commonwealth Fund, the brain trust of more than 30 industry leaders included James Bentley, Senior Vice President, American Hospital Association; Robert Berenson of the Urban institute; John H. Cochran, MD, FACS , executive director of The Permanente Federation; Alain Enthoven of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford; Robert Nesse, from Mayo Health System; J. James Rohack, American Medical Association; and Dr. Lee Sacks, from Advocate Health Care.

The objective of the roundtable was to determine how to help move the country from the existing fragmented, "cottage" industry to a system capable of providing truly coordinated care to patients. The meeting and its topic were very timely given the current health reform debates. The recommendations and findings are being summarized and will be widely disseminated to policy and industry leaders.

For more information about CAPP, view its Web site.