Thread: Medicare to Join State-Based Healthcare Delivery System

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343

Secretary Sebelius Announces Medicare to Join State-Based Healthcare Delivery System Reform Initiatives

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, along with Vermont Governor Jim Douglas and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle today announced an initiative that will allow Medicare to join Medicaid, and private insurers in state-based efforts to improve the way health care is delivered. Innovative models of delivering primary care around the country are examples of the types of programs that will be part of the President’s health reform plan. These are models that improve care for patients, give primary care providers better information about their patients and achieve greater value for the health dollars spent.

The new demonstration will build on a model being tested in Vermont. Under the Vermont model, private insurers work in cooperation with Medicaid to set uniform standards for “Advanced Primary Care (APC) modelsâ€

WHAT? The only things that needs to be changed is Congress that holds the purse strings and keeps robbing these programs to build bridges to nowhere.

The "Vermont model" of any human endeavor (be it brillanat or folly) cannot be replicated nationwide for reasons that I will decline to elaborate on here.