Kirk weighs in on health care

KIRK'S SPEECH

Today, we are closer than ever to guaranteeing that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will help fix a health care system that is failing to meet the needs of the American people. I am proud to join with my fellow freshman Senators in an effort to further contribute to legislation that will mark an enormous stride forward for the American people.

With this legislation, we will finally guarantee that all Americans have access to the health care coverage they deserve. We will protect families who need a helping hand to care for an aging relative. We will stop insurance companies from arbitrarily refusing coverage, and from stopping benefits just when they are most needed. We will give doctors the support they need to practice the best medicine possible. We will protect the American economy from the sky-rocketing costs of health care.

Over the past month, I have had the privilege of working with my fellow freshmen colleagues on a series of amendments to make this bill even stronger. Our amendments plant the seeds for an innovative 21st century health care system that offers both better results and lower costs.

Our amendments focus on the root causes of our skyrocketing health care costs. We will provide Medicare the support it needs to become a leader in moving away from the reimbursement models that have increased costs without improving care. We will establish public-private arrangements that smooth reform, and prevent private insurers from shifting costs onto public plans. We will reduce the red tape that weighs down the current health care system in both the public and private sectors. All of this will contribute to a lower cost and higher quality system.

One focus that is particularly important to me is Delivery System Reform. We must move towards a system of paying hospitals and doctors for the quality of care they provide, rather than for the quantity of tests and procedures that they perform. Our amendments reward providers of Medicare who give high-quality care, rather than high-volume care. We will also allow Medicare to test promising new models to reduce costs, increase quality and improve patient health. We must make these changes for the sake of our patients, and for the sake of our economy.

In short, our amendments strengthen the reforms of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I urge my colleagues to support these amendments, and thereby take an important additional step towards bringing America’s health care system into the 21st century.

SUMMARY OF AMENDMENTS

Working More Closely with the Private Sector on Cost Containment

These amendments transform payment systems and improving quality to require the public and private sectors to move forward together on the shared goals of cost containment, improved quality, and delivery system reform.

· CMS Innovation Center: We give the new Innovation Center explicit authority to work with private plans to align Medicare, Medicaid and private sector strategies for improving care.
· Independent Medicare Advisory Board: We broaden the scope of the new Independent Medicare Advisory Board to look at total health system spending and make nonbinding, system-wide recommendations.
· Quality and Value in Private Insurance: We require the Secretary to consult with relevant stakeholders to develop a methodology for measuring health plan value, which would include the cost, quality of care, efficiency, actuarial value of plans. Developing the tools to assess health plan value will help consumers and employers make better apples-to-apples comparisons when they shop for health insurance and get the best value for their health care dollar.


Stepping-up the Commitment to Reduce Regulatory Barriers and Fight Fraud

These amendments require the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to aggressively pursue streamlined regulations and anti-fraud initiatives to ensure that all sectors of the health care system work together to improve value.

· Administrative Simplification: We require HHS to develop standards that will allow efficient electronic exchange and streamlining of information among patients, providers and insurers.
· Health Care Fraud Enforcement: We direct HHS to better utilize technology to prevent health care fraud.
· Eliminating Legal Barriers to Care Improvement: In tandem with this package, the freshman Senators will be requesting that the U.S. Government Accountability Office study current laws and regulations to identify barriers to implementing innovative delivery system reforms. We also will request that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission work together to provide clearer guidance to providers who wish to enter into innovative collaborative arrangements that promote patient-centered, high quality care.

Aggressively Moving Toward Delivery System Reform

These amendments allow HHS to experiment with promising new models to further lower costs, increase quality and improve patient health.

· Value-Based Purchasing: We require Medicare to implement pay-for-performance for more providers sooner, adding hospices, ambulatory surgical centers, psychiatric hospitals and others.
· Broader Payment Innovation: We allow a broader, more flexible transition to new payment models for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO).
· Medicare System Upgrades: We require HHS to modernize data systems so that valuable Medicare data can be shared in a reliable, complete, and timely manner.
· Good Quality Everywhere: We promote greater access to tele-health services, strengthen the provider workforce and the availability of high-quality hospital services to bolster health care access for Americans in underserved and rural regions.