‘Person-centered’ healthcare reforms could save $1T in 20 years

Healthcare reforms focused on “person-centered care” are the best means to improve care and could save an estimated $300 billion in net federal savings during the next decade, or more than $1 trillion over 20 years, according to an April Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform report.

“The best treatment for a patient involves not just specific services covered under traditional approaches to health insurance financing, but also includes new technologies and new kinds of care and support at home and beyond traditional healthcare settings,” wrote Joseph Antos, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, and colleagues in the 49-page report.

The Brookings Institution report recommended reforms in provider payment, benefit design, regulation and health plan payment and competition. “The proposals reflect ideas that have gathered broad support in the past, but also include new approaches for addressing some of their shortcomings,” Antos et al wrote.

Suggested reforms include transitioning Medicare to Medicare Comprehensive Care, in which organizations include collaborations of providers that receive a case-based or bundled payment, for which they must meet a set of care quality and outcome performance measures. The report also proposes a set of system-wide regulatory reforms, including antitrust and liability reform, which is focused on delivering lower-cost quality care. Additionally, the proposed reforms seek a change in the tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance.

“If a clear framework like ours is not implemented, the alternative is likely to be continued reliance on short-term cost controls, including across-the-board cuts in payments like sequestration, or delays and restrictions in both needed coverage updates for vulnerable populations and new types of innovative care—perpetuating large gaps in quality of care,” according to the report.