What Does Health Care Reform Mean for You?

• 2/11/2010
• Author: Audrie Bretl Roelf
• Category: Benchmark Blog
• 13863 Views
• 0 Comments
• 

I read an interesting article on the Quality Digest Web site titled “What Will Health Care Reform Mean for the Health Care Quality Professional?” The article was structured in a question–and-answer format, with the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Maulik Joshi, M.D., president of AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust and Nancy Foster, AHA’s vice president of quality and patient safety policy, answering questions posed by Quality Digest’s editor.

I found it remarkable that both health care experts pointed out that the U.S. health care reform bills, as passed by the House and Senate, have a keen eye on quality; in other words, legislators have recognized that reforms are needed to not only make health care accessible to everyone, but to make health care better as well. Quality leaders have been working toward this goal for years. We’ve already seen the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services issue a list of “never events” for which they will no longer reimburse organizations, along with the advent of electronic health records, and the medical home. These and other steps currently being taken will go a long way in making sure patients are receiving quality care at a fair price.

What do you think health care reform will mean for your organization? What changes have you made so far to ensure your organization is reimbursed at the highest level possible?