DENVER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- With President Obama's eager anticipation of reaching a common ground on health care reform, lawmakers are being urged to include a previously missing key ingredient in their plans to provide affordable, high-quality coverage to all Americans. And it all starts in the doctors' office.

Thought leaders in the employer-based health benefits redesign and group medical insurance arenas strongly believe that the success of any universal health care plan hinges on physician-led health and performance improvement (HPI).

The concept is joined at the hip with President Obama's "Prescription for America"? effort, which also seeks to improve the quality, safety, efficiency and transparency of health care delivery in the context of a purchasing environment that promotes continuous value enhancement (CVE). It advances an integrated, efficient, high quality health care system using a human behavior change approach - and features rigorous reporting, seamless integration of data and smart predictive modeling as part of an evidence-based, personalized health advocacy approach that focuses on prevention-centered health behaviors, lifelong personal health accountability and work-life health achievement.

HPI is built around eight components that include coalescing a group of covered lives, evaluating their baseline health status by all available means, devising health and performance improvement objectives, establishing incentives for both patients and their physicians to meet or exceed these goals, using various methodologies to measure their progress, and ensuring that the value-based purchasing system is continually adjusted to reward health status improvement and performance through the CVE process.


"Universal health insurance coverage will not be possible without the widespread quality, safety and efficiency improvements achievable through continuous value enhancement,"? observes James B. Couch, M.D., managing partner and chief medical officer of Patient Safety Solutions, LLC and a fellow of the American College of Physician Executives. Dr. Couch was recently appointed to the Advanced Quality of Care Workgroup of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT). Dr. Couch (a physician and an attorney) was also requested to testify on the medicolegal implications of comparative effectiveness research at the inaugural meeting of the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research on April 14.

Adds Paul Grundy, M.D., director of health care, technology and strategic initiatives for IBM Global Wellbeing Services and Health Benefits: "The doctor-patient relationship is a long-term comprehensive connection that optimizes meaningful productive interactions, sustains positive behaviors, empowers with the right tools and links to the care team, resulting in better overall family health."?

Dr. Grundy also is chairman of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), a coalition of 500 major employers, consumer groups, clinicians and others that he created to advocate enhanced access to evidence-based interdisciplinary care. The group is developing employer purchasing guidelines for the medical-home model of care, which it considered a linchpin in reforming health care delivery.

Moreover, Darryl Landis, M.D., a HPI consultant, says HPI can be considered any wise investment in health benefits redesign and the health status of employees delivering bigger profits. He says HPI is clearly about "measuring and improving patient outcomes, delivering high quality care, engaging patients through multiple relationship channels that extend beyond the office visit and motivate patient adherence, simplifying or re-designing work-flows to minimize disruptions, and implementing the grand HPI strategy in phased, bite-sized pieces."?

Les C. Meyer, a seasoned health care strategist and CEO of HPI Advisors, LLC, a Denver, Colo.-based think tank, described the HPI concept in an op-ed piece published in the May 2009 issue of Employee Benefit News as a powerful new movement that will result in an "optimal work-life health balance and life fulfillment."?

"I agree with President Obama when he stated: "?If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done,'"? Meyer says. "We all have been embracing continuous quality improvement since the Institute of Medicine released its report in 1996 "?Crossing the Quality Chasm.' Our communities deserve meaningful treatment and prevention strategies that work. It's now time for purchasers, providers, payers, and policymakers to raise the bar and focus on "?Crossing The Value Chasm' in America and actually transform insightful and profound ideas into action."?


Meyer, who recently presented to the PCPCC's Center for Health Benefits Redesign and Implementation, said HPI marks a break from the thinking of disease management purchasing coalitions and pay-for-performance schemes that "fail to understand the value of the trusted clinician relationship and power of American business ingenuity."?

About HPI Advisors, LLC

HPI Advisors, LLC is a think tank of national experts creating answers to the upward spiral of out of control health care costs and the downward spiral of the overall health of our nation's people. The company's mission is to facilitate community-based, collaborative projects with employers and all stakeholders that are built around health benefits redesign that pinpoint healthy living and working strategies, and designate healthy performance best practices to achieve better health outcomes and business performance results. For more information go to: www.healthandperformance.info



HPI Advisors, LLC

Les C. Meyer, MBA, CEO, 303-757-6756

Les.Meyer@HealthAndPerformance.info

Source: HPI Advisors, LLC