When Eric Hargan became HHS deputy secretary in 2017, the agency did not have a coordinated effort underway to address the investment community that supports a lot of healthcare innovation.
That's why Mr. Hargan on Sept. 19 unveiled the Deputy Secretary's Innovation and Investment Summit, a yearlong collaboration between agency personnel and private sector leaders. As part of the summit, Mr. Hargan said participants will attend quarterly meetings to discuss how the government's regulatory and reimbursement policies affect investment in healthcare, as well as how HHS can remove hurdles to investment and therefore accelerate innovation.
"We want to see where we can foster healthy ideas to fruition, where the government might be inadvertently stifling innovation because of policies that [are] either obsolete or … not necessary to [HHS'] mission of protecting the American people," he said. "If we can advance the ball and create more investment in the healthcare sector, then we want to do that."
The summit hosted its first meeting Dec. 18, with 15 healthcare and private equity leaders participating. Participants are from various types of healthcare organizations, including digital health companies, life sciences companies, medical devicemakers, payers and providers.
During the first meeting, the group — which includes Dean Harrison, president and CEO of Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare; Matt Hermann, senior managing director of Ascension Ventures; and Jim Rogers, chair of the department of business development at Mayo Clinic Ventures — identified four areas where they see potential to spur investments in healthcare. They are:
1. Parallel reviews. Mr. Hargan said this refers to how HHS reviews innovation ideas from governing bodies within the agency for approval or reimbursement, and how, if at all, HHS can revise those processes "to create more certainty in the investment space that will enable … innovation."
2. Value-based care. Advancing the healthcare industry's shift from fee-for-service to value-based care continues to be one of HHS' priorities. Mr. Hargan said private sector leaders want to discuss how the federal government can accelerate value-based care and move value-based initiatives forward more fruitfully. "The idea is that there could and should be priorities in how we move forward in this area. I think it's an area they wanted to talk about and we're willing to talk to them about," he said.
3. Consumer empowerment. Healthcare is moving more toward consumerism. Therefore, private sector leaders want to know how HHS leverages data to enable patients to be engaged in their healthcare, and if there are certain information flows and technologies that affect consumers' engagement in their healthcare, said Mr. Hargan. Private sector leaders also want to know how they can get patients more engaged.
4. Data interoperability. Private sector leaders want to discuss the federal government's involvement regarding regulations that ensure data moves from one healthcare provider to another in a secure way. Mr. Hargan said they specifically want to know how the federal government retains elements of security patients want, need and deserve, while also allowing providers to use data most effectively for patients across platforms.