Key Takeaways:
- Premier’s Healthcare Policy Roadmap includes recommended reforms to enable a better, faster and smarter healthcare industry – aligned to four main public policy objectives.
- Leveraging actionable data, collaboratives and experience working with healthcare organizations nationwide, Premier aims to drive meaningful policy change that makes a difference for providers, suppliers and patients.
As the 119th Congress begins its work alongside a new Administration, the opportunity to address critical healthcare challenges and pursue bipartisan solutions has never been greater. Together with our members, Premier advocates for federal policies that empower hospitals, health systems and continuum of care providers to drive innovation and lead the transformation to high-quality, cost-effective healthcare.
Building on past progress, Premier is releasing a roadmap and recommendations designed to enhance the framework for healthcare policy and advance bipartisan, evidenced-based reforms during the 119th
Congress.
Our advocacy efforts focus on areas that are aligned with four key policy objectives:
- Optimizing the value of healthcare
- Building resilient healthcare supply chains
- Tech-enabling healthcare
- Eliminating gaps in healthcare
What follows is a summary of Premier’s roadmap and recommendations.
Optimizing the Value of Healthcare
Transforming healthcare to improve quality outcomes while safely reducing costs for patients remains a cornerstone, collective mission. Hospitals, health systems and other providers require adequate resources to deliver effective and efficient care. These efforts are integral to building a more equitable, value-driven healthcare system. Namely, Congress and the Administration should work together to:
- Advance provider sustainability and stability: Provide adequate reimbursement reflective of current costs over multiple years and preserve essential federal programs to maintain provider viability, especially in underserved communities.
- Scale and sustain value-based care: Support extending incentives such as the Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) bonus, strengthening the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and accelerating the adoption of APMs to reduce costs and improve quality outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries.
- Empower non-acute providers to deliver patient-centered care: Back policies that ensure fair reimbursement across care settings, foster value-based care models and encourage technology adoption to enhance patient outcomes and workflows.
- Ensure accountability in Medicare Advantage and private plans: Push for stricter guardrails to prevent inappropriate denials and delays, incentivize value-based arrangements and strengthen oversight of medical loss ratios to help improve transparency and fairness in payer-provider relationships.
Building Resilient Healthcare Supply Chains
Creating resiliency, visibility and transparency in the healthcare supply chain helps ensure providers have timely access to critical products and services for patient care. Premier’s roadmap emphasizes building a robust and adaptive supply chain that balances efficiency, equity and sustainability. Premier calls on Congress and the Administration to:
- Strengthen readiness for emergencies: Reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), develop real-time inventory systems and maintain supply chain integrity to ensure critical medical supplies are available during emergencies.
- Mitigate product shortages to safeguard patient care: Support measures to strengthen the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) ability to address shortages proactively, expand shortage lists, enhance risk mitigation plans and expedite importation of critical products to fill supply gaps.
- Diversify supply chains: Back initiatives that spur domestic manufacturing such as tax incentives for onshoring, trusted trade partnerships, expedited FDA approvals and reimbursement adjustments that encourage purchases of domestically manufactured products.
- Foster competitive and healthy markets: Advance policies
that deter anti-competitive practices, support outcomes-based contracting and reward innovation without escalating costs.
- Promote environmental sustainability: Encourage federal policies that incentivize sustainable practices to prepare for adverse climate events and improve environmental outcomes.
Tech-Enabling Healthcare
Technology is essential for advancing patient safety, improving care quality and streamlining secure communication among healthcare stakeholders. Premier prioritizes actionable, reportable data and innovative technologies that drive speed to value and a patient-centered healthcare system. By adopting the following, government leaders can help accelerate this new reality:
- Break barriers to secure, seamless data sharing: Call for the elimination of information blocking, adoption of harmonized data standards and implementation of technologies such as electronic prior authorization and clinical decision support tools to unlock health data’s full value.
- Strengthen cybersecurity: Advance robust cybersecurity measures, including stronger federal support for healthcare cybersecurity networks, shared accountability frameworks and a federal catastrophic loss insurance program to address state-led cyberattacks.
- Transform healthcare data: Support modernizing patient privacy laws, aligning data measurement standards and leveraging real-world evidence to drive clinical breakthroughs and improve patient outcomes.
- Drive responsible artificial intelligence (AI) adoption: Encourage clear governance standards for transparency and safety, promoting AI to enhance care delivery, reduce costs and address supply chain challenges while ensuring trust and equity.
Eliminating Gaps in Healthcare
Addressing disparities and improving access to care are vital for underserved populations and communities nationwide. Premier’s roadmap prioritizes prevention, equity and workforce support to help ensure better outcomes for all. Premier urges lawmakers to address policies that close gaps in care access and improve healthcare delivery, including action to:
- Improve maternal health: Advance evidence-based interventions addressing severe maternal morbidity, particularly among women of color, to help make the U.S. the safest place for childbirth.
- Bolster rural healthcare: Support federal policies providing rural hospitals with funding and flexibilities to sustain high-quality care while addressing barriers to participation in value-based care models.
- Expand behavioral health access: Push for policies that extend telehealth prescribing flexibilities, increase mental health workforce investments and leverage data to inform targeted policymaking.
- Close care gaps in all communities: Back efforts to strengthen the healthcare workforce, expand telehealth and hospital-at-home programs, standardize socio-demographic data collection and foster value-based care arrangements to improve equity and outcomes.
Shaping the Future of Healthcare
At the heart of Premier’s mission is improving the health of communities. By leveraging our data, collaboratives and experience working with two-thirds of all healthcare providers in the U.S., we’re leading the charge for evidence-based advocacy and collaborative policymaking. Together, we can address shared challenges and advocate for impactful healthcare policies that benefit all Americans.