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5500 Preparer's Manual for 2012 Plan Years
The premier resource in the field of Form 5500 preparation, 5500 Preparer's Manual will help you handle the required annual Form 5500 filings for both pension benefits and welfare benefit plans.
The national strategy for health care is focused on building a value-based system with four interconnected cornerstones, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt told participants at the Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) Learning Network monthly session in mid-October. The session addressed the topic of “The Impact of Consumerism, Transparency, & Quality on Employers’ Health Benefits: A Crucial Review of Today’s Federal & State Health Policy.”
The issue of transparency has taken on great importance as employers work to help employees become accountable for their own medical care, Larry Boress, MBGH president, stated in his introduction. However, it also is an opportunity to improve medical provider performance with rewards for good results, he added. The MBGH is actively involved in developing and promoting “responsible purchasing” principles and initiatives.
As listed in Mr. Leavitt’s “Better Care, Lower Cost: Prescription for a Value-Driven Health System” brochure, the following four cornerstones form a value-based system of health care:
These steps ultimately will result in a tool for health care consumers and payers to obtain more cost-effective care and for medical providers to continue to improve their performance, Mr. Leavitt noted. “We have not been successful at measuring value because the federal government, which represents 40% of the health care market, has not been at the table,” he asserted. Now, the federal government is taking the lead and, under a recent executive order from the White House, health care providers that wish to contract with federal health care programs will be required to use comparable, interoperable (compatible) electronic health care systems. Mr. Leavitt expects to have “functional interoperability” in the next couple of years.
The federal government also is working to adopt quality standards, provide information to allow grouping of medical procedures and services into “episodes of care,” and pay for performance systems, Mr. Leavitt explained. In addition, the federal government is reaching out to collaborate with the private sector and with states, he continued. The Health Resources Policy Association has developed a tool kit for standardized requests for proposal (RFPs), and the federal government plans to test this RFP tool kit with the top 150 largest employers (those with at least 50,000 employees) in the country. Beginning with a meeting on Nov. 17, 2006, the HHS will teach employers how to use this tool. “This is a means of reshaping the market in a collaborative way; collaboration is absolutely indispensable as a problem-solving tool,” Mr. Leavitt added.
The American Health Information Community, a federally-chartered advisory committee that provides recommendations to the HHS on how to make health records digital and interoperable, is advising all the major stakeholders on health information technology standards, and the federal government is committed to accept these standards, Mr. Leavitt stated. The process always will be moving and evolving, he noted, adding that the government is in the early stages of developing quality measures. “It is important to medical providers that they know that we can measure performance and pay accordingly,” Mr. Leavitt continued.
In addition, the medical community is stepping up to develop the standards by which it will be measured, Mr. Leavitt assured the MBGH group. In 2006, fewer than one-fifth of medical providers are reported to be using electronic medical records. To enable the dissemination and wider adoption of medical information technology, the HHS may allow hospitals to give necessary systems to small and midsize medical providers, as long as certain requirements are met. “It will be more expensive and almost impossible to do health care business without electronic health records,” he concluded.
Currently, the HHS is looking to develop local quality networks in communities with pilot projects in Boston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, Arizona, and California. The agency plans to do this in every significant health care market, Mr. Leavitt explained. The HHS also is working on developing a national health care system with national standards.
Within two years, the HHS plans to have in place all components of the new “value-based” program, and within five years the word “value” will be a part of the health care purchasing equation, Mr. Leavitt concluded. He also encouraged attendees to participate in the HHS’s pilot programs and in quality initiatives in their communities.
For further information on the MBGH’s health care initiatives, visit http://www.mbgh.org.
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For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.
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