The Supreme Court may have given us an answer on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, but even the big players are still trying to wrap their heads around how it’s going to play out.
That was one takeaway today as Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove addressed the National Press Club about healthcare policy in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act.
He started the talk, which was streamed live over on the club’s website, with a laundry list of improvements the clinic has made to improve care, and some re-enforcement of his stance that the healthcare industry must find ways to cut costs, but that some of the pressure on the delivery system should be placed on society to make better lifestyle choices (basically elaborating on his post on the Hill’s Congress Blog earlier this week).
During a question and answer session, the moderator asked Cosgrove how the Affordable Care Act would affect employees and hiring at the Clinic. He took a long pause before answering, “I don’t think we know yet how the Affordable Care Act is going to affect us.”
It’s certainly not the most provocative thing that Cosgrove, who’s criticized certain components of the act like comparative effectiveness research and proposed federal rules for ACOs, has said. But if nothing else, he re-enforced to the rest of us that although hospitals are supposed to be moving forward with measures spelled out in the ACA, even those leading the pack aren’t entirely sure where they’re going.
And, he at least gave us a little more to work with than another prominent hospital CEO did last month.
Here are a few tweets from the talk.
They found that people who can access their charts took better care of themselves – ‘actively participating in care.’ #NPCLunch
’ ResearchAmerica (@ResearchAmerica) July 20, 2012
MT @wingofzock: Cosgrove: The number of doctors is not decreasing. The issue is that we have not produced enough to start with. #npclunch
“The hospital is becoming less and less the epicenter of healthcare delivery” – Cosgrove #ACA #NPCLunch
’ Cleveland Clinic (@ClevelandClinic) July 20, 2012
’ Cleveland Clinic (@ClevelandClinic) July 20, 2012
Dr. Cosgrove praises NYC mayor Bloomberg’s public health improvement initiatives. Although unsure of soda ban #npclunch
’ Wing Of Zock (@wingofzock) July 20, 2012
“My major concern is that the public has not yet come to terms with the pandemic that is obesity” – Cosgrove @NPCLunch
’ Cleveland Clinic (@ClevelandClinic) July 20, 2012
By Deanna Pogorelc MedCity News
Deanna Pogorelc is a Cleveland-based reporter who writes obsessively about life science startups across the country, looking to technology transfer offices, startup incubators and investment funds to see what’s next in healthcare. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ball State University and previously covered business and education for a northeast Indiana newspaper.More posts by Author
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