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IDSA outlines recommendations for health care reform
Minimum benefits package heads list of suggested elements for reform legislation.
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The Infectious Diseases Society of America has outlined recommendations for a health care reform bill in an open letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The IDSA praised Congress for moving forward with deliberations on health care reform and encouraged representatives to consider the inclusion of several elements in the proposed legislation.
The recommendations call for the establishment of a mandatory minimum benefits package for all private and public health insurance plans. The package should include appropriate preventive services.
Coverage should be expanded to include all vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for all age groups. No co-payments should be associated with the vaccines. All vaccines covered under Medicare should be shifted from Part D to Part B. Children who are eligible for the Vaccines For Children program should be allowed to receive vaccines at public health clinics.
The IDSA recommends that the sustainable growth rate physician payment formula should be repealed. The formula should be replaced by a mechanism that accounts annual increases in practice costs.
The IDSA suggests that accountable care organizations may be used as a mechanism to increase the ability of health care systems to provide incentives to physicians to maintain infection control and prevention strategies and procedures. There are currently impediments to the ability of hospitals to incentivize physicians that could be removed via physician self-referral law for incentive payment and shared savings programs.
New payment models should be tested before being introduced on the national level. Although payment reform is necessary, moving too quickly with such reform could lead to a system that is less effective than the one currently in place.
The Medicare Home Infusion Therapy Coverage Act should be used as a model to expand coverage for antimicrobial and other home infusion therapy services.
Hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers should be required to report health care-associated infections data to CDC. This reporting should occur under protocols as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid. The National Healthcare Safety Network should be utilized for this purpose.
Provisions of the Strategies to Address Antimicrobial Resistance Act should be used as a template to strengthen efforts to reduce resistance at the federal level.
A prevention and wellness fund and a public health investment fund, in addition to a national wellness and prevention strategy should be created.
The public health infrastructure at the federal, state and local levels should be strengthened. Personnel needs should be met, particularly in surveillance and laboratory systems. These increases could be a key form of defense against infectious diseases, IDSA officials wrote.
Evidence-based prevention and wellness interventions, including vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and routine HIV testing, should be covered by all private and public health insurance plans.
Medical liability reform may protect patients from increasing healthcare costs. Reducing liability may also ensure increased access to quality care for all patients.
The HIV Medicine Association of the IDSA has proposed a series of priority reform strategies that should be included in the legislation. The IDSA also strongly endorsed those recommendations.
The letter to Congressman Waxman can be found at the IDSA website: www.idsociety.org.