Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt sees the evolving regulatory landscape associated with the Affordable Care Act as an opportunity for the private sector to experiment, innovate and profit.
The auto industry went through a period in the late 2000s when people wondered if it would continue existing--now, Tesla Motors has taken market share and grown 50 percent in the luxury market as companies like BMW, Audi, Porsche and Mercedes have seen their stocks dip. In the same way people predicted doom for the auto industry, Wall Street analysts and a slew of media outlets have predicted doom for the U.S. healthcare sector post-Affordable Care Act. But Slavitt isn’t buying it, according to his remarks at the Marketplace Year 3: Issuer Insights and Innovations forum this week.
The new disruption in healthcare is the government's pact with Americans that if they lose their jobs or belong to a low-income population, they won't lose their health coverage, nor will they be denied coverage if they are sick, he argues.
Like the advance of technology displacing stock brokers for an online personal trading account, or Uber eating away at taxis' business, sometimes the rules of the game change, and innovative companies adapt, Slavitt writes. Similarly, while conservative politicians want to roll back the ACA, some people in the private sector see an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.
These leaders, Slavitt says, “are spending this period scrupulously experimenting--and profiting.”
Teaming up with Healthcare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan, Slavitt has spoken with many CEOs and management teams about what’s working in the ACA marketplaces. Slavitt poses five questions for payers to contemplate when it comes to public exchange strategy:
- What’s your vision and cultural reference point for serving this population?
- How well do you know your customer?
- Can you build a relationship with consumers around things they need and value?
- Have you created a product that meets the needs of your customers both for service and affordability--not a commercial product, not a Medicaid product--but a marketplace product?
- Fifth, and finally, when you find what works how do you replicate it into a growth strategy?
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell also discussed options with payers for how to improve the ACA risk pool at the forum, telling audience members the Obama administration has listened attentively to insurers' concerns. Burwell hinted that the administration would explore piloting further modifications to the exchanges to address the issue.