Big Business CEOs Issue Call To Action For Fixing US Healthcare

Chief executives of several major U.S. corporations came together under the auspice of the Bipartisan Policy Center to work toward the betterment of health and wellness of individual and communities, as well as the overall U.S. healthcare system itself.  “Improving the health of the nation, and the quality and cost of health care, is imperative if the United States is to compete in the global marketplace,” the CEO Council wrote in BPC’s report from the meeting.  “The history of U.S. business is steeped in innovation, ingenuity, insight, and leadership.”

To that end, the resulting report, "Building Better Health: Innovative Strategies from America’s Business Leaders," outlined ways companies are trying to improve health and well-being as well as the quality, cost, and patient experience of care.  Within the report, the BPC’s CEO Council issued a three-pronged call to action for America’s employers focusing on improving different areas:

1. Health and wellness of individuals: The CEOs contend that companies should institute programs that advance nutrition and physical activity, encourage tobacco cessation, promote emotional and behavioral health, as well as condition management, including chorionic diseases.
2. The health of communities: Employers should start by reviewing any and all available metrics, collaborating with public- and private-sector leaders to improve health behaviors including nutrition and physical activity, clinical care with a focus on access to care and prevention, as well as addressing the socio-economic factors known to improve communities’ health, such as education, housing, access to nutritional foods and childhood poverty.
3. U.S. healthcare system: To fix the broader healthcare system, the CEOs explained, companies should embrace value-based purchasing to promote delivery system innovations, report meaningful performance data, support strong patient-doctor relationships and drive patient engagement to ultimately fuel more informed decision making...