NEHI Survey Finds Opinion Leaders Calling for Greater Innovation to Control Health Care Costs

Press Release
April 25, 2012

Media Contact:
Nick King
Vice President, Communications
(617) 225-0857 ext. 212
media@nehi.net

NEHI Survey Finds Opinion Leaders Calling for Greater Innovation to Control Health Care Costs
Findings to be discussed by Health Experts at NEHI Innovation Conference

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 25, 2012) – In a survey released by NEHI, one of the nation’s leading health policy organizations, opinion leaders point to innovation as the key to solving the nation’s health care problems. Respondents ranked poor access to health care as the single most important challenge in need of new thinking, but also believe that innovation is necessary to contain health care costs without resorting to cutbacks in coverage or services. These findings are part of the NEHI Innovation Barometer, sponsored by NEHI in partnership with Ernst & Young and come at a time when access to health care remains a key issue at the center of the health care debate—and as the Supreme Court holds the fate of the health care reform law in its hands. To discuss the findings and other critical issues, NEHI is gathering leading health experts, including U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Chairman of the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System Dr. David Blumenthal and advisors from the presidential campaigns of President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, at the 2012 NEHI Innovation Conference taking place on April 26, 2012 at the Westin Copley Boston Hotel.

“The NEHI survey indicates that we still need innovative solutions to our health care challenges, and that access is at the top of the list for these new ideas,” said NEHI President Wendy Everett. “The survey suggests that neither supporters nor opponents of the Affordable Care Act are perceived as having seized the mantle of innovation regarding expanding access to health care. At the same time, the poll indicates that there is a desire for greater efficiency in health care and investments in innovations that will improve both quality and efficiency in health care.”

Some of the key survey findings to be explored at the NEHI Innovation Conference include:

• Many opinion leaders want an innovative solution to “providing access to health care for all Americans.” Ranked first among a range of options, 41           percent of respondents say this is the most important health care challenge to address with an innovation solution—and exceeds the next leading health  care challenge, “lowering the cost of health care,” by more than a two-to-one margin (16%); 
• By more than a four-to-one margin, the majority of respondents (78%) believe that “health care costs can be controlled if there are new, innovative waysto be more efficient in delivering health care services”—as opposed to controlling costs if “cuts are made and strict spending budgets are required” (16%);
• A majority of opinion leaders (54%) say they support government actions to improve the overall U.S. health care system, even if they increase the federaldeficit in the short term.

“The NEHI survey clearly illustrates strong support for the use of new thinking by the health sector to increase American’s access to care,” said GlenGiovannetti, Global Life Sciences Sector Leader at Ernst & Young. “Leaders in both the public and private sectors need to follow NEHI’s lead in harnessingthis support so we can ensure our country continues to have the premier health care delivery system.”

The NEHI conference will feature remarks from leading health experts and one of the first health care discussions of the 2012 presidential campaign between the Obama and Romney campaigns. Participants include:

• FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg,
• Chairman of the Commission on a High Performance Health System and former National HIT Coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal,
• President Obama re-election campaign advisor Paul Kim
• Governor Romney presidential campaign advisor Tom Barker, and a
• Roundtable with CEOs from PhRMA, Advamed, Covidien, the Steward Health Care System and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
   

About the NEHI Innovation Barometer
APCO Insight, the opinion research consultancy of APCO Worldwide, designed and conducted The NEHI Innovation Barometer, sponsored by NEHI in partnership with Ernst and Young. The survey, conducted via telephone, interviewed 500 opinion leaders in the United States from March 22-29, 2012. For the purposes of this survey, health opinion leaders are defined as members of the general public who regularly read national or local newspapers, follow current events in the health care industry and recently voted in an election. Landline and mobile telephone numbers were called via random-digit-dialing (RDD) sampling technique. The margin of error for the total sample is ±4.4 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence interval. The data was weighted by age to make best attempts to reflect the population; weighting estimates were taken from longitudinal data conducted by quantitative research by APCO Insight among this population.

About NEHI
NEHI is a national health policy institute focused on enabling innovation to improve health care quality and lower health care costs. In partnership with members from all across the health care system, NEHI conducts evidence-based research and stimulates policy change to improve the quality and the value of health care. Together with this unparalleled network of committed health care leaders, NEHI brings an objective, collaborative and fresh voice to health policy. For more information, visit www.nehi.net.

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