A majority of healthcare leaders believe it's possible to hold healthcare spending steady over the next 10 years and say President Barack Obama's healthcare blueprint may be effective in doing so, according to a new survey.
Nearly all respondents (96 percent) to the latest Commonwealth Fund Healthcare Opinion Leaders Survey agreed that the nation must slow healthcare spending, currently at 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and expected to grow to 21 percent by 2020.
"Although the United States spends more than any other country on healthcare, too many Americans are still falling through the cracks,” said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis. "These survey results show substantial consensus among leaders on the need to control healthcare costs while fundamentally transforming our healthcare system to one that provides affordable high-quality coordinated care for all Americans."
Specifically, opinion leaders voiced strong support for various aspects of payment reform – 70 percent advocate moving away from 'fee-for-service' payment toward ‘bundled’ payment, 77 percent agree with the alignment of Medicare Advantage rates with those paid in traditional Medicare, and 87 percent want to see greater incentives for high performance care.
In addition, 82 percent of respondents want Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, including 76 percent of respondents from business, insurance and other healthcare industries.
Sixty-six percent of those surveyed would like to see the current physician Medicare payment system replaced. Without a change, physicians are expected to face a 21 percent pay cut next year.
Of the proposals outlined in Obama's budget blueprint, experts were nearly unanimous in their support for reforming the physician payment system to improve quality and efficiency and establishing a streamlined approval system for generic drugs and preventing drug companies from blocking the introduction of generic competitors.
The survey is the 18th in a series from The Commonwealth Fund, and the tenth conducted in partnership with Modern Healthcare. The survey was conducted online in the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of The Commonwealth Fund from March 2-31 and involved 584 opinion leaders in health policy and innovators in healthcare delivery and finance.