Dear Chairman Hatch, Ranking Member Wyden, Senator Isakson, and Senator Warner:
The Gary and Mary West Health Institute welcomes the opportunity to provide comments on the Bipartisan Chronic Care Working Group Policy Options Document released in December of 2015.
As an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit medical research organization working with healthcare providers and research institutions to create new, more effective ways of delivering care, the Gary and Mary West Health Institute was established in 2009, with offices in San Diego, CA and Washington, D.C. It is funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West as part of West Health, four organizations with a common mission on “Successful Aging.” At West Health, successful aging is enabling seniors to live their lives on their own terms with access to high-quality health and support services that preserve and protect one’s dignity, quality of life and independence.
We very much appreciated the discussion with the bipartisan staff of the Senate Finance Committee Chronic Care Working Group on October 19, 2015 and strongly support the efforts of the Working Group. We believe the document reflects thoughtful work and analysis that furthers the goal of improving outcomes and quality for the millions of vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries managing multiple chronic conditions. We, too, are focused on advancing sustainable and scalable policies which improve care coordination and disease management while also addressing payer and beneficiary affordability. Several of the proposed policies directly align with West Health’s overarching goals, including
West Health is focused on three areas that fall under the rubric of ways to improve outcomes for Medicare patients with chronic conditions. These include: (1) Medicare Advantage and Value Based Insurance Design, (2) Independence at Home and home-based care (3) Technology solutions which enable home-based care.
Sincerely,
Valerie Volpe
Vice President Government Affairs
