CVS CEO discusses five key reforms in newspaper op-ed piece

WOONSOCKET, R.I. As the healthcare reform debate continues, increasing government support for businesses to implement wellness and drug adherence programs, encouraging the use of generic medications and pushing the use of retail-based health clinics are among the five key reforms that are within reach and should be built upon, Tom Ryan, chairman, president and CEO of CVS Caremark, wrote in an op-ed piece that ran in Sunday's Washington Times.

On the heels of the Senate Finance Committee's approval of its version of healthcare reform, Ryan stated that Congress now enters the next phase of final deliberations, and he believes that the focus should be on building upon what works. The five things, from Ryan's perspective, that work and should be expanded:

• "Increase government support for business to implement wellness, prevention and drug adherence programs to enable us to better manage chronic but treatable conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
• Encourage the use of comparative effectiveness research to inform clinical decision-making and encourage procedures that are most effective at less cost.
• Increase incentives for healthcare providers to invest in state-of-the-art, interoperable health IT that will help eliminate unnecessary administrative costs, reduce efforts and lead to higher quality care.
• Continue to encourage the use of cost-saving generic drugs by having Congress create a path for the efficient approval of safe and effective generic biologics, as 11 other countries have done.
• Bring basic health care to people who now have more costly services, or do without, by more broadly encouraging the use of convenient and cost-effective retail-based health clinics."

"Over the long term, to further rein in healthcare costs, Congress will need to tackle difficult issues like tort reform and catastrophic insurance coverage. But at this critical juncture, we believe a 'stepped approach' is the right one — adopting these five reforms that are practical and within reach," Ryan stated. "Taken together, they would help our country move toward significantly improved quality, as well as greater effectiveness of the healthcare delivery system, while slowing the unsustainable rise in costs."

To read the entire op-ed, visit http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/18/some-solutions-already-at-hand/