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Medco CEO Unveils Pragmatic Blueprint for Health Care Reform; Reducing Costs by Upwards of $1 Trillion

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 General News
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Plan Challenges Policy-makers, Physicians, Patients and Payors To Become Engaged and Accountable



WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In an address today at the National Press Club, Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MHS) Chairman and CEO, David B. Snow Jr. unveiled a pragmatic blueprint for fixing America's inefficient health care system that, for the first time, is designed to address the root causes of the problem. Unifying the strengths of both the public and private sectors, Snow's plan is designed to reduce the nation's health care expenses by as much as $1 trillion - almost 50 percent of current expenditures - while extending affordable, high-quality care to more Americans.
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(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080909/NY32513 )



Noting that the United States spends twice as much per capita on health care as most other developed nations - but achieves no better clinical outcomes - Snow's plan addresses the technological, regulatory, clinical and societal reforms needed to create a sustainable system that enables affordable access. From fixing Medicare to trimming America's collective waistline, Snow advocates tough choices to tackle controversial issues - challenging government, the private sector, patients, physicians and payors to become actively engaged and accountable for improving both clinical and financial outcomes.
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Snow's phased five-point plan represents an integrated approach to health care reform that includes progressive building blocks that, over time, interconnect to achieve as much as $1 trillion in health care savings.



The five tenets of Snow's program include: wiring health care; eliminating medical liability through protocol-driven medicine; addressing Medicare's financial fundamentals; increasing compliance, while reducing errors; and promoting healthy lifestyles.



"Wiring health care is the key that drives accountability and unlocks a new era of protocol-based medical practice. With established protocols in place, medicine then transforms from an art into a science -- where quality is validated, errors are averted, compliance improves and liability, along with the need to practice defensive medicine, is significantly reduced," said Snow, who manages one of the nation's largest health care companies. "These technological and process-driven advances, combined with a national imperative around healthy lifestyles and bold policy leadership will permanently alter the slope of health care cost increases, and help to permanently address the financial fundamentals of Medicare."



Snow added: "There is no greater domestic challenge facing our country and the new administration. The public and private sectors must work together now to fix the buckling financial foundation of America's health care system. Otherwise, as a society we may be left with the unacceptable outcome of a system that, under the federal government, eliminates choice, rations care and extinguishes innovation."



Snow's plan recognizes and respects the appropriate roles of the public and private sectors, with the government promulgating policy and regulating compliance with those policies, while allowing the private sector to operate and innovate.



"Despite the urgent need, experience shows that health care reform must be evolutionary, not revolutionary, to be accepted by the American public," Snow said. "We must agree upon an end-to-end strategic road map now, so that we can begin the journey to reform in earnest. Our commitment to this road map needs to persevere over an extended period of time to realize this opportunity. The payoff for doing this right is huge; the penalty for failure will burden generations to come."



Snow warned that addressing the root-causes of the health care cost conundrum requires transc
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