Baucus health reform
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Mandating disclosures of payments or gifts made by device and drug firms to health care providers, perhaps using as a model the previously introduced Physician Payments Sunshine Act, should be part of any health care reform package, states Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., in a Nov. 12 1white paper intended to kick off a national health reform process focusing on a public-private plan to cover all Americans. A broad-based reform package also should include the establishment of a nonprofit, private comparative effectiveness institute like that proposed in legislation sponsored by Baucus earlier this year, according to the Senate Finance Committee Chairman. Reform legislation also needs to consider hospital-physician gainsharing models that "strike the appropriate balance between thoughtful incentives for coordination of care and careful protections against financial conflicts-of-interest that could harm quality of care.