Strengthening Affordability and Quality in America's Health Care System

"We believe we can do better. Our group of diverse health care stakeholders came together over the past year to develop a road map to transform the health care system by improving efficiency, clinical effectiveness, and value for patients."

A diverse group of health care stakeholders present their recommendations for controlling costs and improving the quality of our health care system.

In an effort to improve both the affordability and quality of health care in America, key health care stakeholders from the insurance, hospital, physician, business, and consumer sectors—America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Ascension Health, Families USA, the National Coalition on Health Care, and the Pacific Business Group on Health—worked together to reach consensus about what is needed to control costs and improve quality.

The five recommendations from this group, the Partnership for Sustainable Health Care, align incentives to transform care delivery and strengthen the infrastructure needed to achieve improved savings and health outcomes.

1. Transform the current payment paradigm by transitioning away from the current fee-for-service payment system towards payment approaches that demonstrate their effectiveness in improving both quality and cost.
2. Pay for care that is proven to work by reducing payments for services that prove to be less effective and to have weaker value than alternative therapies.
3. Incentivize consumer engagement in care to enable consumers to make better use of their discretionary care choices.
4. Improve and shore up America’s health care infrastructure by focusing on seven specific areas to allow for cost- and quality-related innovations.
5. Incentivize states to partner with public and private stakeholders to transform the health care system.

While members of the partnership may have different positions on short-term policies, they all recognize a common commitment to a long-term vision of a sustainable, high-quality health system. The principles and strategies outlined in this report will be further refined and examined in an effort to realize this vision.