Don Berwick, CMS director, visited western Wisconsin on Thursday August 18th touting the low cost high quality care La Crosse, Black River Falls and the Eau Claire communities have achieved.
Coming off the heels of Dr. Richard Gilfillan's visit to Appleton last month Wisconsin is getting a lot of attention for leadership in clinical care redesign and payment reform. Both ThedaCare and Gundersen Lutheran have been applying lean principles to clinical care for years and it so happens La Crosse and Outagamie counties, where Gundersen and ThedaCare are the main providers, rank No.1 and No.2 in the state in lowest total cost per Medicare enrollee. This also puts both places in the top 10% of lowest cost for the country.
Berwick acknowledged that the federal programs need change, namely a Medicare reimbursement system that pays hospitals based on the number of procedures they perform instead of how successfully they treat patients" wrote the La Crosse Tribune reporter. We have been espousing this concept for years and are doing something about it. The Partnership for Healthcare Payment Reform which has been supported by the center is introducing two major payment reform initiatives this Fall, one of which Gundersen has agreed to participate in. It's ironic that although most commercial insurers plan to participate Medicare is not, at least not yet.
We believe strongly that Medicare should be participating in payment reform pilots across the country when they are led by qualified and credible organizations such as The Partnership for Healthcare Payment Reform in Wisconsin. These types of pilots are occurring around the country and will allow Medicare enrollees to have access to better quality lower cost care. We are hopeful that CMS can partner with us on these important initiatives.
Read more: http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_4bd80468-ca18-11e0-86fb-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1Vh3oLlFc
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