Senator Murray Stresses Helping Families Get Primary Care As Key Part of Tackling Health Costs
Feb 05 2019
At HELP hearing, Senator
Murray highlights innovative primary care approaches in Washington state
driving down health costs and improving outcomes
Senator Murray emphasized the importance of addressing barriers to primary care access like cost, distance, and language
Senator Murray: “While primary
care providers can play a critical role in coordinating care and
reducing costs, they can only play that role when people have access to
care. In fact… lack of access can actually drive costs higher.
***WATCH VIDEO OF SENATOR MURRAY’S OPENING REMARKS HERE***
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Patty
Murray, (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered opening remarks at the Committee’s
hearing on how primary care affects health care costs and outcomes. In
her remarks, Senator Murray highlighted primary care models like the
Patient Centered Medical Home and initiatives like Project ECHO for
geriatrics at the University of Washington as examples that show how
primary care can help coordinate and personalize care for better quality
and affordability. She also emphasized the importance of tackling
barriers that keep families from getting primary care, like cost,
distance and language, and highlighted her bipartisan legislation to
provide five years of stable funding for community health centers which
help address these challenges and make sure families in underserved
areas can find care close to home.
Key excerpts of Senator Murray’s remarks:
“Families across the
country want quality health care to be accessible and affordable—no
matter where they live, how much they make, or what health challenges
they face. They want to know that breaking a bone won’t break the bank,
that a high fever won’t come with a high cost, that filling a
prescription won’t mean emptying a savings account, that managing a
chronic illness won’t mean having to travel prohibitively long
distances, or manage exorbitant costs. And when it comes to keeping
families healthy, and care affordable, how we approach primary care is a
key piece of the puzzle.”
“Having [a Patient
Centered Medical Home] quarterback care in this way means giving them a
clear view of the field—a patient’s holistic health needs, a roster of
their teammates—the patient’s other care providers, and the power to
call plays—tools for coordinating care and treatment decisions across
the health system. In practice, that means primary care providers can
better understand, how to keep all the different specialists and
providers on the same page about which treatments, prescriptions, and
approaches are best for a patient’s needs, and how to prevent treatments
that are redundant, or worse, counter-productive when used together.
And they can better understand what barriers—like cost, distance, or
language—might prevent a patient from getting the care they need, and
how best to overcome them. The result is care that helps bring down
costs, not just by giving patients better, efficient care when they are
ill, but also by doing more to keep them healthy.”
“Of course, while
primary care providers can play a critical role in coordinating care and
reducing costs, they can only play that role when people have access to
care. In fact, when people don’t have access to primary care, they
don’t just miss out on care that can improve their health and drive
costs down—this lack of access can actually drive costs higher. Patients
go to the ER for non-urgent medical care, or worse, go without medical
care entirely, until non-urgent issues become urgent ones—ones that are
more expensive to treat, more debilitating, and more challenging to
overcome. So while innovation in primary care is important, we must
absolutely remember to focus on access to it as well, and work to help
people overcome barriers like cost, language, and location.”
Watch full video of Senator Murray’s remarks HERE.
Full text below of Senator Murray’s remarks:
“Thank you Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all
our witnesses for joining us as we look at the role primary care can
play in addressing skyrocketing health care costs, and improving health
outcomes.
“Families across the country want quality health
care to be accessible and affordable—no matter where they live, how
much they make, or what health challenges they face. They want to know
that breaking a bone won’t break the bank, that a high fever won’t come
with a high cost, that filling a prescription won’t mean emptying a
savings account, that managing a chronic illness won’t mean having to
travel prohibitively long distances, or manage exorbitant costs.
“And when it comes to keeping families healthy, and care affordable, how we approach primary care is a key piece of the puzzle.
“Experts in Washington state have known this for
years, and been a driving force for models that work to make primary
care more accessible, affordable, and effective.
“Like Dr. Ed Wagner, at the MacColl Center in
Seattle, who helped advance the idea of the Patient Centered Medical
Home—a delivery model where care is coordinated through primary care
teams for better efficiency, and better health outcomes.
“Having these primary care teams quarterback
care in this way means giving them a clear view of the field—a patient’s
holistic health needs, a roster of their teammates—the patient’s other
care providers, and the power to call plays—tools for coordinating care
and treatment decisions across the health system.
“In practice, that means primary care providers
can better understand, how to keep all the different specialists and
providers on the same page about which treatments, prescriptions, and
approaches are best for a patient’s needs, and how to prevent treatments
that are redundant, or worse, counter-productive when used together.
“And they can better understand what
barriers—like cost, distance, or language—might prevent a patient from
getting the care they need, and how best to overcome them.
“The result is care that helps bring down costs,
not just by giving patients better, efficient care when they are ill,
but also by doing more to keep them healthy.
“This promising delivery model was not only
advanced in Washington state by the MacColl Center, it was also put into
practice by one of our state’s largest employers—Boeing.
“Boeing found that by delivering care that was
more coordinated and personalized, they not only lowered costs for
patients by one fifth by preventing expensive care like hospital
admissions. They also increased access to care, and improved their
employees’ health outcomes.
“And our state has continued to lead the way in implementing new ideas to improve primary care for patients across the country.
“I’m looking forward to hearing from Dr. Bennett
with University of Washington about one of those efforts—Project ECHO
for geriatrics—which takes a novel approach to better tailoring care,
and lowering health care costs for seniors.
“The program sets up a regular teleconference
for family medicine residents and others on their team in rural areas to
learn from geriatric experts and consult on issues like: Which
prescriptions are best for elderly patients? How can they help patients
managing chronic illnesses? And what preventative steps can they suggest
to patients at risk of dementia? Or seniors concerned about falling?
“By giving primary care providers access to
experts on these issues, this application of Project ECHO helps bring
specialized care to seniors who might otherwise, have to wait weeks or
months for an appointment, and might even put off getting care in the
first place if required to travel far from home.
“Dr. Bennett, I’m excited to hear more about the
work this program is doing, and how it is leading to better outcomes,
and lower costs, for seniors across the Northwest.
“Of course, while primary care providers can
play a critical role in coordinating care and reducing costs, they can
only play that role when people have access to care. In fact, when
people don’t have access to primary care, they don’t just miss out on
care that can improve their health and drive costs down—this lack of
access can actually drive costs higher. Patients go to the ER for
non-urgent medical care, or worse, go without medical care entirely,
until non-urgent issues become urgent ones—ones that are more expensive
to treat, more debilitating, and more challenging to overcome.
“So while innovation in primary care is
important, we must absolutely remember to focus on access to it as well,
and work to help people overcome barriers like cost, language, and
location.
“As we heard last week, community health centers
play a critical role in doing just that. They provide 27 million people
across the country with affordable care close to home.
“So I’m glad Chairman Alexander has joined me in
introducing a bipartisan bill to ensure they have stable funding for
the next five years. This is an important step in supporting centers
across the country that provide primary care to underserved communities.
“And as we continue to focus on the issue of
health care costs, I’m hopeful we can find more common ground on issues
like, how to bring down skyrocketing drug costs so families aren’t
worried about whether they can afford life-saving drugs like insulin,
how to address surprise balance billing so patients aren’t caught off
guard by unexpected and unaffordable price tags for out-of-network care,
and how to address President Trump’s health care sabotage and lower
premiums for families across the country.
“Democrats already have a lot of ideas for how
to do this, and we’re eager to make it happen. So I hope Republicans
will sit down and work with us on common sense solutions to bring down
health care costs.
“Thank you.”
