Health Care Leaders Discuss Innovations That Drive Value In Health Care

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 6, 2015 – NIHCM Foundation today is bringing a diverse panel of health care leaders to Capitol Hill to discuss how to increase value in health care—including innovations in care delivery and payment as well as ideas for managing drug costs and reforming regulation of medical technology.

Speakers include Patrick Conway, Acting Principal Deputy Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts; Patrick Geraghty, Chairman and CEO, GuideWell and Florida Blue; Avik Roy, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research; Uwe Reinhardt, Professor of Political Economy, Princeton University.

“This is a critical time to focus on increasing value in health care—improving the quality of care while containing costs,” said Nancy Chockley, President and CEO of the NIHCM Foundation. “The speakers on today’s panel are at the forefront of driving value through innovations in the way we deliver and pay for care and through public policy.”

Uwe Reinhardt, one of the nation’s leading health care economists, noted, “When people talk about ‘innovation in health care’ they usually mean innovation in pharmaceutical products or medical devices. The discussion here usually centers around pumping more tax money and private money into Research and Development to guarantee investors high rates of return, to encourage that activity. The question for public policy is how high those rates of return have to be to satisfy these investors, given the paltry risk premiums we play firemen, police and military people who risk not just their money but their own lives and limbs for us.”

“As a representative of GuideWell, we are honored to participate in this Capitol Hill briefing with other distinguished guests of NIHCM,” said Pat Geraghty, chairman and CEO of GuideWell and Florida Blue. “The collective effort by a variety of stakeholders to drive a significant transformation in the industry is refreshing. Innovation in product design and delivery, combined with an emphasis on value-based programming, are becoming the new cornerstones of the health care industry, and will help to reshape how health care is perceived and utilized across this country.”

About NIHCM

The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the health of Americans by spurring workable and creative solutions to pressing health care problems.