Candidates seeking election in 2016 — including the two vying for the highest office in the land — should address timely healthcare topics such as value-based purchasing and information technology as they hit the campaign trail, one healthcare group urged this week.
In a primer released Tuesday the Council of Accountable Physician Practices encourages candidates at the national, state and local levels to include ways they’ll tackle three “priority” issues — value-based payment, health IT and quality measurement — in their campaign activities. CAPP members include “high-performing medical groups and health systems,” according to the group.
“Few subjects are as personal to the American people — and evoke as much heated debate — as healthcare,” the primer reads.
The guide addresses issues that have largely been left untouched by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Robert Pearl, chairman of CAPP, told Bloomberg BNA.
The primer urges lawmakers to support efforts by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to link Medicare payments to value, and encourage the agency to push value-based programs such as Accountable Care Organizations and bundled payments to “do more.”
CAPP’s recommendations also advise candidates to “demand full interoperability” of health IT systems, expand health technologies in both urban and rural areas, and support efforts to identify and standardize high-value quality measures across care settings.
For more, read Senior Editor Elizabeth Newman’s take on the CAPP primer.
