(Obama Administration) Partnerships for Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs

From the HealthCare.gov Web page

Doctors, nurses and other health care providers in America work incredibly hard every day to deliver the best care possible to their patients.  Unfortunately, an alarming number of patients are harmed by medical mistakes in the health care system and far too many die prematurely as a result.

The Obama Administration has launched the Partnership for Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs, a new public-private partnership that will help improve the quality, safety and affordability of health care for all Americans.  The Partnership for Patients brings together leaders of major hospitals, employers, health plans, physicians, nurses, and patient advocates along with State and Federal governments in a shared effort to make hospital care safer, more reliable, and less costly.  The Partnership will help save 60,000 lives by stopping millions of preventable injuries and complications in patient care over the next three years and has the potential to save up to $35 billion, including up to $10 billion for Medicare.  Over the next ten years, it could reduce costs to Medicare by about $50 billion and result in billions more in Medicaid savings.  Already, more than 500 hospitals, as well as physicians and nurses groups, consumer groups, and employers, have pledged their commitment to the new initiative.

The two goals of this new partnership are:

• Keep patients from getting injured or sicker. By the end of 2013, preventable hospital-acquired conditions would decrease by 40% compared to 2010.  Achieving this goal would mean approximately 1.8 million fewer injuries to patients, with more than 60,000 lives saved over the next three years.

• Help patients heal without complication. By the end of 2013, preventable complications during a transition from one care setting to another would be decreased so that all hospital readmissions would be reduced by 20% compared to 2010.  Achieving this goal would mean more than 1.6 million patients will recover from illness without suffering a preventable complication requiring re-hospitalization within 30 days of discharge….

…To see which organizations have already joined the Partnership, visitpartnershippledge.HealthCare.gov. …

…For more information about the Partnership for Patients, visitwww.HealthCare.gov/center/programs/partnership.  For more information about the Community-based Care Transitions Program funding opportunity visit: www.cms.gov/DemoProjectsEvalRpts/MD/itemdetail.asp?itemID=CMS1239313.

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