Healthcare Business Trends recently wrote an article about finding a political agreement for common healthcare issues. We thought this article provided some insight about how both political parties could start to work together to improve the healthcare of the country.

For years, healthcare has ranked among the top issues of concern for voters, and 2020 is no different. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a major political fault line, the current administration wants the Supreme Court to rule it unconstitutional, while the next administration advocates maintaining and even expanding it. Nevertheless, an objective and careful assessment of the policy positions of the presidential candidates would indicate that some common ground does exist.

Regardless of who is elected president, there are six issues in healthcare where there is some degree of common ground and bipartisanship in Congress. One could reasonably expect some progress to be made in these areas during the next two years.

1. COVID-19 vaccine distribution

This is job one in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unexpected, extraordinary force that has adversely affected most every area of life globally. A safe and effective vaccine, efficiently administered to a majority of Americans, with priority given to healthcare workers and high-risk individuals, is the only path to restoring public confidence and ameliorating COVID-19’s wide-ranging impacts.

2. Telehealth

Dozens of articles proclaim that telehealth is here to stay, and countless health systems and physician practices have decided that from now on, the majority of their interactions with patients will be done virtually. Telemedicine grew from about 10% of all patient visits prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to almost 90% by the end of May, with generally high levels of patient satisfaction reported broadly. During COVID-19, CMS eliminated the almost 50% payment differential between inpatient and virtual visits. Although it is true that after COVID-19, CMS may reinstate some differential, it will likely be much smaller.  Moreover, the executive order on Aug. 3 directed the Secretary of HHS to make permanent many of the new policies that improve the accessibility and availability of telehealth services.

3. Surprise medical billing

Republicans and Democrats have supported reforms to protect patients from balance billing at out-of-network rates when patients have no control over the providers attending them. Both parties have promised to end surprise medical billing, although it is unclear what mechanism they would support, whether through a benchmark or arbitration. An executive order on Sept. 24, on an “America-First Healthcare Plan,” directed the HHS Secretary to work with Congress to reach a legislative solution by Dec. 31, 2020.

4. Value-based care and APMs

Both parties support the concept of value-based care and alternative payment models (APMs), such as accountable care organizations. The Democrats are more likely to make APMs mandatory, in contrast with the current administration’s more gradual approach to date.

5. Price transparency

The current administration has made transparency a theme of several of its health reform pronouncements, positioning it as a consumer-empowering pathway to spur competition and reduce healthcare costs. On Nov. 15, 2019, CMS issued a final rule that will require hospitals, beginning Jan. 1, 2021, to provide patients with clear, accessible information about their prices for the items and services they provide. Specifically, the rule states that hospitals must make public, on the internet, hospital standard charges for all items and services. Hospitals also must make public payer-specific negotiated charges, the amount the hospital is willing to accept in cash from a patient for an item or service, and the minimum and maximum negotiated charges for 300 common shoppable services, with updates on at least an annual basis. In contrast, Democrats have simply expressed support for establishment of a “transparent all-payer pricing database,” likely with a longer list of services.

6. Site-neutral payments

Despite hospital opposition, both parties support site-neutral payments. CMS included site-neutral payment reforms in its 2019 hospital outpatient prospective payment system final rule, which was challenged by the American Hospital Association and other organizations in the courts but ultimately upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 21, 2020.

This would be a good first step to develop some team work on Capitol Hill. We need to stop fighting all the time and start working together to find solutions to our healthcare problems.