Major Health Care Players Unite to Accelerate Transformation of U.S. Health Care System

Leaders Forming New Health Care Transformation Task Force Commit to Putting 75% of Their Businesses in Value-based Arrangements by 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 28, 2015) – Several of the nation’s largest health care systems and payers, joined by purchaser and patient stakeholders, today announced a powerful new private-sector alliance dedicated to accelerating the transformation of the U.S. health care system to value-based business and clinical models aligned with improving outcomes and lowering costs.

The Health Care Transformation Task Force, whose members include six of the nation’s top 15 health systems and four of the top 25 health insurers, challenged other providers and payers to join its commitment to put 75 percent of their business into value-based arrangements that focus on the Triple Aim of better health, better care and lower costs by 2020.

“The formation of this Task Force and its ambitious goal demonstrate that the private sector embraces a value-based approach to improving care and lowering costs,” said Richard J. Gilfillan, MD, CEO of Trinity Health, the Task Force’s chairman. “We are committed to rapid, measurable change both for ourselves and our country that will improve quality and make health care more accessible for all American families.”

The Task Force’s announcement comes just two days after Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced that Medicare would shift 50 percent of its provider payments into alternative payment arrangements such as accountable care organizations or bundled payments by 2018. Together, the two announcements send a clear signal that the public and private sector are aligning around a new trajectory for health care payments that moves away from fee-for-service and into alternative payment models.

With deep experience in both private and public sector health care, participants in the Health Care Transformation Task Force provide a critical mass of business, operational and policy expertise to increase the momentum of delivery and payment system reforms. The Task Force’s diverse membership of providers, payers, purchasers and patients, as well as academic and policy leaders, uniquely positions it to offer recommendations to both policymakers and the private sector that reflect consensus and can thus gain wide acceptance and use.

The Task Force will seek to align private and public sector changes in the way providers are paid. “Building a healthier world requires fresh thinking and innovation. It calls for everyone in health care to rally around the single goal of improving health and service while reducing costs – whether you give care, receive care, manage care, or pay for care. This Task Force brings together a cross section of leaders, working together to find better ways to improve the health of people and communities. By joining together, we are well positioned to introduce more effective change, more quickly, with more impactful results,” said Fran Soistman, executive vice president of Government Services, Aetna.

The Task Force will develop timely and actionable policy and program design recommendations for the private sector, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Congress and others; new delivery and payment models; and the best-practice tools, benchmarks and approaches to implement them. Initial priorities include improving the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model, developing common bundled payment framework and improving care for high-cost patients.

Today, the Task Force also released its first consensus recommendations on how best to design the next generation of the ACO model in commercial, Medicare and Medicaid programs. The recommendations will form the basis of the Task Force’s upcoming comment letter on the CMS proposed changes to the Medicare Shared Savings ACO program.

The Task Force defines value-based payment arrangements as those which successfully incentivize and hold providers accountable for the total cost, patient experience and quality of care for a population of patients, either across an entire population over the course of a year or during a defined episode that spans multiple sites of care.

While the providers and payers are committing to new business and clinical models, the purchaser and patient members are committing to creating and sustaining the demand, support and education of their constituencies necessary to reach the goal. “Our goal is clear — to reform our health care system so that it finally delivers the high-quality, coordinated, patient- and family-centered care that families deserve,” Debra Ness, president, National Partnership for Women & Families.

David Lansky, president & CEO of Pacific Business Group on Health, echoed this sentiment saying, “We need to align the way we pay for and deliver care with the outcomes we want: better quality and lower costs. The country cannot continue down the path of fee-for-service medicine that produces fragmented and unsafe care. The cost of health care undermines our global economic competitiveness and erodes the financial security of individuals and families. Our goal is transformation that achieves value and improved health outcomes.”  

Health Care Transformation Task Force Members

Advocate Health Care • Aledade, Inc. • Ascension • Atrius Health • Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health • Dignity Health • Heritage Provider Network • Optum • SF HealthCare • Partners HealthCare (Massachusetts) • Premier, Inc. • Providence Health & Services • SCL Health • SSM Health • Trinity Health • Tucson Medical Center Healthcare • Aetna • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts • Blue Shield of California • Health Care Service Corporation • Caesar’s Entertainment, Inc. • Pacific Business Group on Health • National Partnership for Women & Families • Mark McClellan, Brookings Institution • Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice • Chris Dawe, Evolent Health • PatientPing • Remedy Partners

Leavitt Partners is the implementation partner for the Task Force. Foley & Lardner LLP supports the Task Force as primary legal counsel. To learn more about Health Care Transformation Task Force and stay up to date on its latest recommendations and reports, visit www.hcttf.org.  

About Health Care Transformation Task Force

Health Care Transformation Task Force is a unique collaboration of patients, payers, providers and purchasers working to lead a sweeping transformation of the health care system. By transitioning to value-based models that support the Triple Aim of better health, better care and lower costs, the Task Force is committed to accelerating the transformation to value in health care. To learn more, visit www.hcttf.org.