Ascension on Wednesday helped kick off a national effort to bring public and private sector partners together to move healthcare toward a system that provides the best care for patients and pays providers based on the quality, rather than the quantity, of care. Marking the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama announced the new collaboration — the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network.
Ziad Haydar, MD, Senior Vice President, Clinical Excellence, and Chief Medical Officer of Ascension Health, joined U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell, Acting Assistant Secretary for Health and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Dr. Karen DeSalvo, and other leaders at the White House for the event.
“Ascension has been working to transform healthcare in shifting from fee-for-service to value-based care,” Dr. Haydar said. “That starts with our approach to mission-focused, regional clinically integrated delivery systems that deliver high-quality, low-cost person-centered care.”
As part of the network, Ascension has committed to long-term business goals to implement a value-based care model. Robert J. Henkel, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ascension Health, added: “Partnering with others is essential to making new payment models work well, so Ascension is eager to join our colleagues across the industry today as one of the first members of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network.”
Secretary Burwell earlier this year announced the ambitious goal of tying 30 percent of payments to quality and value through alternative payment models by 2016, and 50 percent by 2018, under new approaches to paying for healthcare created by the Affordable Care Act.
The network is designed to accelerate transformation of the nation’s healthcare delivery system to one that achieves better care, smarter spending, and healthier people, by supporting the adoption of alternative payment models through aligned work, as described by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Payers, providers, employers, patients, states, consumers and other partners already have registered to participate.
