Re: OT: Another Republican Lie About Healthcare Debunked

["Robert L Bass" <Sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> http://www.mayoclinic.org

The Mayo Clinic is accepted by Republicands and Democrats aloike as one of the
premier sources of accurate information about health issues.  They have posted
some comments about healthcare reform on their website:

"Mayo Clinic believes that U.S. health care urgently needs reform to ensure
access to quality, affordable patient care. Read our detailed
recommendations."

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The Mayo Clinic sent an open letter to Congress about healthcare reform.  The
text of that letter follows:

Dear Members of Congress,

We wholeheartedly support President Obama?s call for healthcare reform, and
agree with his position that ?the status quo is the one option that is not on
the table?. We applaud the House and the Senate for their ongoing efforts to
obtain universal coverage for all Americans.

The President challenged you and your colleagues to look to high quality
efficient healthcare providers for ways to improve health care. Congress must
encourage all U.S. physicians and hospitals to focus on quality, not quantity,
and ultimately deliver better health for all Americans at lower cost.

We urge you to insist that reform legislation includes a method that pays for
value and quality, rather than the quantity of medical procedures. Currently,
Medicare pays the most to ten states that often provide poorer outcomes,
safety, and service at higher cost, and much less to most of the country where
providers demonstrate generally better outcomes, safety and service at lower
cost. As healthcare providers, we believe that insertion of a measurement of
value into the payment system is a critical step to change provider behavior
throughout the country and ?bend the cost curve? in U.S. health spending
without compromising health.

The Medicare Payment Improvement Act (H.R. 2844, S. 1249) is a simple, yet
bold, concept that inserts value into the Medicare physician payment
schedule. We encourage you to talk to the bill?s authors (Sen. Klobuchar and
Rep. Kind), and co-sponsors, about how this concept builds value
and outcomes into the payment structure without interfering with the
doctor-patient relationship. We believe that this legislation is an important
first step to a healthcare system where value, not volume, prevails, so that
future healthcare expenditures do not expand the Federal budget deficit. For
the long term, we are also encouraged by other ideas that move toward paying
for value, including an independent agency that could develop value-based
payment methodologies for Medicare.

Under the current Medicare system, a majority of doctors and hospitals that
care for Medicare patients are paid substantially less than it costs to treat
them. Many providers are therefore already approaching a point where they can
not afford to see Medicare patients. Expansion of a Medicare-type plan without
a method to define, measure, and pay for healthy outcomes for patients will
move many doctors and hospitals across this threshold, and ultimately
hurt the patients who seek our care. We should not put more Americans into the
current unsustainable system.

?Pay for value? is the only tactic that will ?bend the cost curve? in U.S.
health spending, improve the quality of care that our citizens deserve, and
create a long and healthy future for both the American people and the American
healthcare system.

Thank you for your leadership and commitment to health care reform.

Sincerely,

Dr. Casey Ryan, MD, President, Altru Health System
Dave Molmen, CEO, Altru Health System
Thomas Colacchio, MD, President, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health
Dr. James Weinstein, Director, The Dartmouth Institute for
Health Policy and Clinical Practice
Scott Armstrong, President & CEO, Group Health Cooperative
Michael Soman, MD, President, Group Health Physicians
Jeff Thompson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Gunderson Lutheran Health System
Mary Brainerd, President & CEO, HealthPartners (MN)
David Barrett, MD, President & CEO, Lahey Clinic
Karl J. Ulrich, MD, MMM, President/CEO, Marshfield Clinic
Denis A. Cortese, MD, President & CEO, Mayo Clinic
Jack McCallum, MD, PhD
Michael Kitchell, MD, President, McFarland Clinic
Patricia C. Briggs, CEO, Northwest Physicians Network
Ira N. Hollander, MD, President, North Texas Specialty Physicians
Alfred Knight, MD, President & CEO, Scott & White Healthcare
Ralph Koldinger, MD, President, Sutter Independent Physicians
Dr. Leonard L. Berry, Professor of Humanities in Medicine,
College of Medicine Health Science Center, Texas A&M University
Gary S. Kaplan, MD, Chairman & CEO, Virginia Mason Health System

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Regarding Senator Baucus' healthcare reform bill, the Mayo Clinic issued the
following statement:

September 17, 2009 ? 9:27 pm
Mayo Clinic appreciates the hard work and dedication of Senator Baucus in
moving the health care reform debate forward.

Mayo is optimistic about the direction that Senator Baucus?s proposal lays out
to ensure access to health insurance for all Americans. The proposed health
insurance exchanges and a consumer owned and oriented plan will allow doctors
and hospitals to continue to care for their patients, without the restraints
of a Medicare-like, price-controlled public plan.

Mayo is pleased to see that the proposal includes elements designed to move
Medicare in the direction of paying for value. Value is defined as the
equation of quality (outcomes, safety and patient satisfaction) over the cost
of care over time.

Provisions in the proposal that move us in this direction include the focus on
Accountable Care Organizations, payment bundling pilot projects, and an
Innovation Center for Medicare to test new patient-centered delivery and
payment models.

Mayo will work with Senators to build upon these provisions and suggest
additional ideas on paying for value in the Medicare program, including
rewarding value and move toward implementation of programs that do so and
using the array of measurement tools already in place to implement.

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The Mayo Clinic issued the following endorsement of President Obama's address
to the joint session of Congress:

Mayo Clinic strongly supports President Obama?s call for health insurance
reform and health care delivery reform, and agrees with the President?s
position that the status quo is not acceptable. We believe that a bipartisan,
collaborative approach is essential to achieving significant, patient-centered
health care reform.
Mayo Clinic and the many organizations and individuals working with us in the
Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center are strongly in favor of reform of both
health care delivery and health insurance. True health care reform is getting
better results for the money spent. Better results for money spent is what we
meant by high value health care: better outcomes, safer care, better service
and at lower costs over time. And this will translate to better access to
medical services for all Americans.

We agree with President Obama?s focus on insuring all Americans and reforming
the health care payment reform.


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Regards,
Robert L Bass

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