Expert Panel Supports Using Cost Savings to Fund Innovation in Health Care

On Apr 4, 2014

The key to adopting new innovative technologies in health care delivery may lie in the drive to reduce costs through improved coordination and reduce services that have little value, according to an expert panel convened by NEHI (Network for Excellence in Health Innovation) and the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ).

“Savings achieved in one area will allow for payment of the other,” said Thomas E. Hubbard, Vice President of Policy Research at NEHI.

Panelists agreed that purchase and adoption of innovative technologies and therapies were necessary for better patient outcomes, but that cost savings elsewhere in the system could help speed innovation to market. “If we eliminate more overuse, then we can afford the new, higher priced drugs,” said Dr. Steven Peskin, Senior Medical Director at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The panel also discussed the importance of getting life science companies and health care delivery systems to work together to engage patients. “How can we tap into the skill set that the life sciences people have, rendering the complex information understandable?” said Dr. Tony Slonim, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Barnabas Health.

New Jersey’s life sciences companies are talking with potential customers not just about products, but about services as well. With bundled payments, they will have to look harder at how services are included with access to new drugs and medical devices, panelists said.

“The ACO (Accountable Care Organization) model is making it possible for life science firms to learn to talk with health system CEOs, and to talk services as well as product,” said Karen Licitra, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Government Affairs and Policy, Johnson & Johnson.

The discussion took place recently at “Innovation in an Era of Payment Reform: How Will New Jersey’s Life Sciences Companies Respond?”, a roundtable in Monroe Township, hosted by NEHI (Network for Excellence in Health Innovation), a national health policy institute, in partnership with the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ). The roundtable explored how payment reform will impact innovations in New Jersey and help increase quality and reduce costs of health care. Expert speakers from all sectors of health care debated which priorities and policies will accelerate the adoption of high quality, low cost innovations.

The panels consisted of several national health care leaders, including Heather Howard, JD, Princeton University and RWJF, Dr. William Fera of Ernst & Young, Richard Bagger of Celgene, David Knowlton of NJHCQI, Karen Licitra of Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Ruth Perry of Trenton Health Team, Dr. Steven Peskin of Horizon BCBS of NJ, and Dr. Anthony Slonim of Barnabas Health Medical Group.