Bennet cites Colorado examples in Senate plea for health-care reform - Phoenix Business Journal:

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Coloradans, he said, "speak for countles others acrossthe nation. All they ask for is a healtyh care system that worksfor them, a healthn care system that doesn’t crush them with unreasonable cost and a health care system that doesn’t deny them coveragd just because they have pre-existing Bennet, D- Colo., also touted his own proposals to make patient transition care more cost-effective and successful. "In Colorado, we haven’t waited on Washington," he said. "We’ve made real progress in showinvg how to provide high quality health care at alower cost.
" Bennet, formerly superintendent of the Denver Publidc Schools, was appointed to the Senates by Gov. Bill Ritter to fill the seat vacatedf by Ken Salazar when Salazar was picked by President Barack Obama as secretary of the Here is the full textof Bennet'ss Senate-floor speech as prepared for delivery provide by his staff. In the speech, he is addressingg the president ofthe Senate. Mr. President, I rise todahy to discuss the urgent need for healthcare reform. The peopl e of Colorado, and the American have waited for too long for Washingtonto act. We shoulsd begin with a basic principle: if you have coverager and youlike it, you can keep it.
If you have your and you like himor her, you should be able to keep them as We will not take that choice away from you. But even as we keep what we must confront the challenges of soaring healtu care costs and the lack of accessto affordable, quality health care. The status quo is Every day, families in Colorado and acrosd America facerising premiums. Their plans offer fewer They are denied coverage becauseof pre-existinfg conditions. And until we fix the health care we won’t be able to fix the fiscal mess in which we find ourselves. Since 1970, the shar of healthcare as a part of the GDP has gone from 7 perceny to17 percent.
The United Statez spends over $2 trillion in health care includingover $400 billion on Medicare alone. President Obamq has said that the biggest threat toour nation’s balance shee t is the skyrocketing cost of health care. And he’s right. In Colorado, we haven’t waitedx on Washington. We’ve made real progress in showing how to providde high quality health care at alowerf cost. Last week, the New Yorker magazined published an articleentitled “The Cost Conundrum” that highlightds the important work that’s been done in Mesa Colorado.
Over thirty years ago this communityservin 120,000 people came together—doctors, and the non-profit health insuranc company. They agreed upon a system that paid doctor and nurses for seeing patients and producingf betterquality care. They realized that problemsa and costs go down when care is more InMesa County, the city of Granf Junction implemented an integrated health care system that provide s follow-up care with patients. This follow-uo care has helped lower hospitap readmissions rates in Grand Junctiobn to just3 percent. Compare that to the 20 percent rate and it is clear that our community on the Westernn Slope of Colorado is ontosomethinh groundbreaking.
High readmission rates are a huge proble forour seniors. Nearly one in five Medicare patiente who leave a hospital are readmitted withib thefollowing month, and more than three-quarters of thesed readmissions are preventable. Rehospitalization costs Medicareover $17 billion a year. It’ painful for patients and familiese to be caught up in these cycle sof treatment. All too often, care is fragmentede – you go from the to the hospital, to a nursingv home, back to the hospital and then back to thedoctodr again. Patients are given medication instructions as they are leavintgthe hospital, many times after coming off of stron g medications.
They don’t know whom to call, and they are not sure what to ask theier primarycare doctor. The solution, both our Denver and Mesa Countyg health communitieshave found, is to providw patients leaving the hospital with a This coach is a trained healtjh professional connecting home and the This coach teaches patients how to managre their health on their own. Our Denver health community created a model based on this idea called the Care Transitions Their work is the basis for the Medicaree Care Transitions Act of a bill I introduced to implemenr this model on thenational level.
This legislation recognizes that patientcare shouldn’t beginh in a doctor’s office and end at the hospital Investing in coaching and transitionalp care now can head off huge costs down the It has the advantage of being both preventive and responsive. Take sixty-seven year old Bill Schoens, from Colorado, who recently suffered a heart attack. Before he was released from the registered nurse Becky Cline was assigned as hisTransitions Coach.
She made sure that Bill understoofd the medications that his doctors prescribed and everything else he neededs to do to get Bill evenpointed out, “When you are in the emergency you are all drugged up and can barel remember what to do. Confusion startz to set in.” Beckyy went through each step Bill needed to follosw when he leftthe hospital. Becky evaluater Bill’s ability to follow doctor’s orders in his environmen and helped him maintain his own PersonaolHealth Record.
With her help, when Bill visited the he didn’t have to remember everything that happened sincw he left thehospital — it was all in the Bill said “When people are in front of theid doctor, their blood pressure goes sky high and they forget what they need to He said he founc the help and guidance he received from his Transitionse Coach “invaluable and life-saving.” We need patient-centered coordinate care — care that views nurses, doctorss and family members not as isolated but as partners on a team whose ultimate goal is to make sure patientz get the guidance and care they need.
Hospitalzs aren’t the problem, primary care physicians aren’t the problem, and nursesd aren’t the problem. Our fragmentedf delivery system of care isthe problem. This bill also makese sure that we are teachinv patients to manage their own conditiohat home. Sixty-nine year old Franki Yanni of Denver, Colorado had surgeru for a staph infection of thespinap cord. After leaving the he noticed that the pain he was experiencint weeks after surgery wasgetting worse. Havinvg been “coached,” he identified the problemk and knew to insist on visiting his doctor A hospital test showedethat Mr.
Yanni required a second His coachsaid that, “Had he let that go for even anothefr week, he could have ended up in the Intensivwe Care Unit, septic and horribly sick.” Our Colorado transition of care model, reflected in our gives health care systems the choice of whethere to create this program. But it allows existinhg patient-centered transitional care programs like the one in Mesa Colorado tocontinue on.
We want communities and providers to thinkj and work together to reducereadmission rates, reduce costs and provide better coordinated care to our Other systems should look at Colorado and the systemzs in twenty-four other states that have alreadhy begun to follow this As we begin to emerge from the economic we must call upon existing health care professionals from all walke of life —nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, long-ter m care, and community health workerw — to serve as transitional coaches.
Coloradol nurses like Becky Clined have found that focusing on transitional care has leveragectheir skills, empowering them to take a more active role with They are able to work with both patients and familty caregivers. For too long, family caregivers have been “silent partners.” 50 million Americans provide care for achronicallu ill, disabled or aged love one. This bill recognizes their connecting them with a coac who can teach them how to properlycoordinater at-home care. This bill is only a small part of the solutio n to the complex challenges of our fragmented healtuhcare system. The problems of rising costsz and limited access affect people from all walksof life.
Skip Guarinio of Parker, Colorado, is a self-employed private consultanty andretired U.S. Marine. After yeards of regular doctors’ visits, Skip’es dentist discovered a lump on his thyroid during a routine exam that had gone undetected by his physician despitr 10previous exams. Skip underwent a CT/MRuI scan, Ultrasound, and biopsy, all of whichb were inconclusive. A second series of testd six months later revealerd that the lump had and Skipunderwent surgery. Durinyg the surgery, doctors found Skip was then sent to an endocrinologist who ordered more All tests cameback negative. A second full body scan revealef no sign of cancer anywherin Skip's body.
All these exams and screenings cost Skip Since then, Skip has maintained perfect but he cannot obtain privated insurance because of the thyroid surgery. He now relieds on COBRA and is paying a monthly premiumnof $1,300. This coverage is set to expir e in less thanone year, at whicy point Skip will have no insurance at all. Hollis Berendtg is a small business ownerin Colorado. She is covered through her husband’sz employer, which is according to her, “aa luxury many other small businessownerd don’t have.
” After graduating from Colorado States University in 2004, their daughtedr Abby found a job with a large company in New York She was told she couldn’t get healtn care coverage until she had been workingh at the company for one At ten months of she was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor that would requir surgery. The expenses were too much for so her parents had to take out a seconed mortgage to pay hermedicao bills.
Hollis shared that, “This experiencre brought to light, all too clearly, how closd we all are to losing everything due to a health The current system is hurtinbg our small business people and their Take Bob Montoyaof Pueblo, Colorado who runs Cedare Ridge Landscape in Pueblo with his brother, Ron. They are torn betweeh providing health care coverage for employees and keeping theirtbusiness afloat. Last year, the business paid out $36,0000 for a health care plan to covet Boband Ron’s families and one othere employee. The other 12 employees and their familie s do not get coverage throughtheir work.
Bob “As business owners, we want to do righy by the people who workfor us, but if all our employeesz opted into our healtg care plan and paid theidr 50 percent, we would be forced out of business.” He said it is an “impossiblse situation” for him and his Like too many small businesd owners, Bob can’t find good healtn care coverage at a cost he can afford. He “The longer it takes to pass comprehensive healtghcare reform, the more jobs will be lost as small businessea shut their doors due to risiny costs.” Mr. President, these Coloradansa speak for countless others acrossthe nation.
All they ask for is a health care system that worksfor them, a health care systejm that doesn’t crush them with unreasonablre cost increases, and a health care systek that doesn’t deny them coverage just because they have pre-existin g conditions. I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful that we can keep what works in our systej and fix whatis broken. I’mm hopeful that this Congress – working with our Presidenf – will finally deliverf on the promise of health care The people of Coloradodeserve it. The American people deserve it.
Thank you and I yield the