Designing Health Plans That Do Not Impede Delivery of High-Value Care

"The growing financial pressure being faced by patients – which of note exists independent of the necessity or quality of the health care that is delivered – is rapidly eroding the fabric of our health care system," write Eric Stecker, MD, MPH, FACC, chair-elect of ACC's Science and Quality Committee, et al., in a Leadership Page published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Stecker and colleagues highlight the recent efforts by ACC leaders and Advocacy staff to convene stakeholders, including private payers, healthy policy researchers, clinicians, and others to explore the creation of "dynamic, personalized" health plan models that would "help ensure access to low-cost, high-quality and readily accessible health care."

Continued Potential For Telehealth, Virtual Care

"Telehealth has the potential to make health care more personalized, efficient and coordinated; it has the potential to improve efficiency, patient and clinician satisfaction, and health outcomes. It is the ultimate value proposition," write ACC President Athena Poppas, MD, FACC; ACC Chief Innovation and Science and Quality Officer John S. Rumsfeld, MD, PhD, FACC; and Heartbeat Health CEO Jeffrey D. Wessler, MD, MPhil, FACC, in a JACC Leadership Page.

Poppas, Rumsfeld and Wessler highlight the critical role that telehealth is playing in treating and managing patients in the era of COVID-19 and note that "it can and must" continue to play a role into the future.

"The technology to support true virtual care exists, the opportunity is ripe, and the promise is great," they write. "We believe that cardiovascular clinicians can and should lead the virtual care era."

The ACC and Heartbeat Health announced this month that they are joining forces to transform telehealth into comprehensive virtual care by ensuring cardiology practices around the world can incorporate clinical data into virtual patient communications to make real-time, informed clinical care decisions. Look for more details in the July issue of Cardiology.