Nation’s Healthcare Leaders Meet in Unprecedented Summit to Focus on How Medical Innovation Can Be Affordable, Accessible and Sustainable

“Payers, providers, manufacturers, patients, government, employers all need to be at the same table and speaking the same language,”d
said HLC President Mary R. Grealy

WASHINGTON – More than 80 influential leaders in healthcare gathered in the nation’s capital March 2 to begin a process designed to develop healthcare payment and delivery systems that encourage innovation, while achieving greater value and long-term financial sustainability. The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) – a coalition of chief executives from providers, payers, manufacturers and other health sectors – convened the day-long event.

The Summit on Healthcare Value and Innovation involved leaders from all health sectors including health insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers; officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology; employer organizations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation and Business Roundtable; and Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, fellow, Center for American Progress.

“It has never been society’s charge to ask innovation to wait a minute until we’re ready for it,” said HLC President Mary R. Grealy, in opening the Summit. “Genies don’t go back into the bottle. It is up to leaders in both the private and public sectors to find a way to connect patients and consumers with these game-changing innovations in ways that are affordable, reliable, stable and sustainable.”

The summit is part of HLC’s National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation (NDHI) initiative, a forum designed to bring diverse interests together to develop consensus approaches on issues affecting healthcare progress. The event, Ms. Grealy said, was designed as a ‘roll up your sleeves,’ workshop-style meeting, enabling the multiple components of the healthcare system to meet face-to-face in a first-of-its-kind summit to address key challenges of value, innovation and affordability.

At the event, NORC, an independent social science research organization based at the University of Chicago, released a new report identifying barriers to innovation within the current health policy structure and possible payment and delivery alternatives that can both encourage medical advances to improve health and promote affordability. Additionally, ZS Associates, a global consulting firm, shared results from a survey of health industry executives on existing obstacles to strengthening healthcare value.

Ms. Grealy said, “Too often, we have these conversations within our own silos, amongst our own like-minded friends, sectors and allies. But healthcare can’t progress if we have a multitude of simultaneous discussions that never intersect. Payers, providers, manufacturers, patients, government, employers all have a role in shaping the optimal healthcare system for the 21st century, but it can’t happen unless we’re all talking at the same table and in the same language.”

She said the Washington, DC summit would be the starting point of a collaborative process focused on developing improved healthcare payment and delivery systems that elevate value and incentivize medical innovation.