Greg Poulson, senior vice president and chief policy officer for Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, feels the pinch. Mr. Poulson has spent the last several years focused on generating value for patients and established Intermountain’s health plan. He now leads Intermountain’s policy efforts and is a member of MedPAC, the committee advising Congress on Medicare pay updates.
He has been following federal policy updates closely as President Donald Trump took office. His administration is eyeing federal funding cuts and Republican lawmakers pitched a plan that would alter Medicaid reimbursement. Under the plan, hospitals would see pay cuts.
“We’re certainly seeing dramatic changes, or potential for dramatic changes, in federal policy and I think they’re evolving in ways that are not yet clear to me, so we need to be light on our feet and able to be responsive to changing dynamics at the regulatory level, and at the payment level, particularly in the Medicare world,” said Mr. Poulson during an interview for an upcoming episode of the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast “”And very likely in the Medicaid world, being ready to adjust the way we think so that we can work effectively and meet the needs of the beneficiaries that depend on us is going to be a big challenge over the next 18 months or so.”
He also sees rationalizing the expanding pharmaceutical expense as a big challenge at the national level. Intermountain is one of the founding members of Civica Rx, a company focused on developing generic drugs and therapies at a lower pricepoint, which helps control costs. There are many new drugs and innovative therapies with great potential to help sick patients, but prices are still high.
“We need to also find ways to make that cost effective and cost beneficial,” said Mr. Poulsen. “It’s my instant hope that we can find ways to bring Moore’s law, or some analog of that, to bear in healthcare so that we can take very invasive and expensive procedures that we provide today and replace them with something that is much less invasive, much less risky, and hopefully also at a lower cost that will allow people to live effective, healthy lives with less of what we think of as medical intervention.”
JP Valin, MD, chief clinical officer at Intermountain, is watching legislative shifts on the state and federal level as well. Intermountain operates facilities in six states with distinct legislators and priorities. Dr. Valin said the health system is ready to respond to changes that could impact operations and will continue to support its mission of providing elite patient care. But it’s not always easy to plan for the future with so much uncertainty in the present.
“It’s a lot like driving the car down the road,” said Dr. Valin during an interview with the “Becekr’s Healthcare Podcast.” “You have to watch for what’s right out in front of you, but you also have to take a look to see what’s further down the road. And you have to constantly be changing and adjusting your vision so that you’re looking at what’s in front of you and what’s ahead.”
Dr. Valin challenges his team not to be distracted by what’s happening peripherally on the legislative front to focus on their core work. They also are doubling down on key priorities for a “no regrets” strategy.
“The focus is on if we can simplify healthcare for patients or our caregivers, that’s going to be successful regardless of what happens in any of the environments we’re in,” said Dr. Valin. “We do need to simplify healthcare and how it gets connected, focused on things like access. We know access is a chronic challenge and how do we continue to do things to promote access to high quality, affordable healthcare for our patients and communities? That’s a no-regret strategy that works across the board.”
Even in the era of uncertainty and change, Dr. Valin said his team has an idea of what’s coming down the road and can prepare. But that doesn’t mean they’re straying from their ultimate destination.
“Our destination, which is the transformation of healthcare and our system to become much more accessible and simple for patients and caregivers, helps us focus on going upstream to keep people well,” he said. “Those are the no-regrets strategies that I think we can continue to focus on, and it should only take minor adjustments to respond to what’s happening around us because we’ve got the right core strategy that aligns with our mission.”
