Cleveland Clinic CEO: Affordable Care Act is here to stay

The Republican National Convention pulled up stakes after it concluded yesterday, but a visitor to the convention floor says that the Affordable Care Act is here to stay.

In an interview with CBS This Morning, Cleveland Clinic Chief Executive Officer Toby Cosgrove, M.D., said that it was unlikely that the ACA would be uprooted, even if Republican Donald J. Trump is elected President and there are GOP majorities in both houses of Congress.

“I don't think you will see something now six years into the process totally dismantled,” Cosgrove said, adding that the healthcare reform law has led to insurance coverage for 20 million more Americans. Cosgrove suggested that it was more likely that the ACA would undergo continuing improvements such as “more wellness activities.”

That appeared to dovetail into what the Cleveland Clinic is doing in terms of managing some of its patients with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes. Cosgrove said that patients newly diagnosed with the disease usually receive instructions on how to manage their condition in groups of about a dozen or so. He added that the process was akin to “group therapy” and that patients are more likely to respond proactively to their diagnoses.

Cosgrove, a cardiac surgeon by training who has been with the Cleveland Clinic for the past 41 years, has been its CEO for the past dozen years and has been tightly focused on continuously improving the quality of care. He is well-known for measuring virtually every facet of the processes involving Cleveland's largest employer. One specific example: using sensors under patients' home mattresses to better predict the likelihood of readmissions. It also receives some of the highest marks for patient satisfaction in the United States, a turn of events that has only occurred in the past decade or so.

Cosgrove said that the Cleveland Clinic has also been successful in terms of cutting costs for treating some serious medical conditions, such as strokes. He added that the ability to treat neurological conditions will expand vastly in the coming years as the result of new technological breakthroughs.

- watch the CBS This Morning interview

Editor's Note: This story originally reported incorrectly that Cosgrove was a cardiologist by training.