3 Takeaways From Yesterday’s Supreme Court Ruling

As you know by now, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion yesterday allowing subsidies in states using the federal healthcare exchange. In other words, the decision was a big win for the ACA. Details of the opinion in King v. Burwell are available from many sources, so I won’t rehash them here. I plan to discuss the effects of this ruling in greater detail in a later blog. Today, I would like to offer three brief observations from yesterday’s decision.

1.    The ACA is here to stay.

Were you waiting to see how the Supreme Court ruled before making changes to your healthcare business model? My best advice is to take action now to help your stakeholders thrive in a new healthcare environment. The current healthcare system is unsustainable in the long term, and we are moving steadily into reform.

Will everything be perfect in a new environment? Of course not, but going back to the old system or waiting for a different system to be created are not effective strategies any longer. The ultimate winners in healthcare reform will be those organizations that recognize the realities of the current environment and take the opportunity redefine and reinvent themselves – before someone does it for them. Taking action as soon as you can will position your system or practice for the best results possible.

2.    Politicians must define and fix the real problems in our healthcare system.

With this affirmation of the ACA, I hope that lawmakers will work across the aisle to fix the problems in our healthcare system. We know there are certain parts of the law that must be addressed, but we’ve had to struggle to deal with flawed requirements because politicians seemed unwilling to address them in legislation. Now is the time to take politics out of healthcare reform and to start making necessary changes to the system.

3.    The Triple Aim is the goal of healthcare reform.

I’ve written in this blog before that the Triple Aim – better care for individuals, better health for populations, and lower costs for healthcare overall – is the answer to reforming healthcare. I still believe that’s true. We cannot reimburse hospitals and physicians on a volume-based model and expect to achieve greater value in patient care. We must become more patient focused and make it possible for healthcare providers to address all of a patient’s needs – physical, environmental, social and psychological – and be paid for it. Of course, the challenges we face are complex and are not limited to reimbursements models, but reimbursement is certainly a key factor.

Better health should be our ultimate goal for individuals, families and communities. Perhaps with yesterday’s ruling behind us, we can begin to provide the Triple Aim for everyone.

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