When it comes to transforming the health care delivery system, reach for the stars. Or, as Darren DeWalt of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) explained during the LAN Summit plenary, we should take a page from President Kennedy’s 1961 speech to Congress, in which he outlined an ambitious plan to put Americans in space and on the moon before close of the decade.
During an inspirational session, at the LAN Summit, CMS’ Dennis Wagner, Paul McGann, and Darren DeWalt outlined a vision for delivery system transformation that works in concert with payment models. The key to making that vision a reality, McGann explained, is to start by defining an aim that keeps the needs of all stakeholders in mind and then building the system to make the goal a reality. In other words: “aims create systems and systems generate results.”
The speakers also noted that as year two of the LAN kicks off, the focus is increasingly on actions or implementable steps that participants can take to advance health care payment reform. DeWalt encouraged the audience to look for opportunities to begin implementing the ideas under discussion at the LAN Summit.
