Reshma Gupta, MD, MSHPM,
Director at Costs of Care
“Our Affordability Accelerator aims to move conversation around affordable healthcare back to our patients.”
BOSTON (PRWEB)
September 14, 2021
Costs of Care, a non-profit focused on helping clinicians and health systems provide more affordable and equitable healthcare, will bring together leaders from around the country to address the patient affordability crisis during a two-day Affordability Accelerator this month. Launched in December 2019, Costs of Care’s Affordability Moonshot envisions “a world in which no one has to choose between their life and their life-savings.” As a critical component of the Moonshot, the Accelerator will embolden key stakeholders from leading health systems, research organizations, payers and patient representative organizations to work together to further dialogue and insights that will lead to the development of innovative initiatives to improve patient affordability. Partnering with Costs of Care in this Accelerator is Family Reach, a non-profit dedicated to removing the financial barriers standing between a cancer patient and their treatment.
Affordability is a leading healthcare concern for Americans, with two-thirds of people indicating they are worried about being able to afford unexpected healthcare bills. A 2019 survey revealed that half of US adults put off needed care because of costs. Affordable healthcare is a barrier to care for many around the country, ultimately leading to poorer outcomes and health inequities.
“Our Affordability Accelerator aims to move conversation around affordable healthcare back to our patients. We are bringing together patients, care teams, and health system and national leaders to identify real opportunities to reduce patient out-of-pocket costs from each of their unique lenses,” said Reshma Gupta, MD, a Director at Costs of Care and the Chief Population Health Officer at UC Davis Health.
“Pulling together teams to address affordability and figuring out what tools look like that can actually be utilized by health systems, payers, and patients is paramount to meaningfully helping solve this enormous problem,” said Jordan Harmon, a Director at Costs of Care and Chief Commercialization Officer at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Costs of Care has been a leader in curating stories from the front lines of healthcare for nearly a decade and has featured over 500 stories on their blog illustrating the powerful impact patient and clinician insights have on improving healthcare. Costs of Care has also developed multiple frameworks, educational modules, and workshops, as well as partnered with leading organizations to inform, educate, and address costs of care issues in healthcare.
“Patients and caregivers suffer from unreasonably high healthcare costs, and care teams often feel powerless to address these problems,” said Chris Moriates, MD, Executive Director at Costs of Care and Assistant Dean for Health Care Value at Dell Medical School. “The time is well past due for us to focus dedicated efforts in healthcare on addressing patient affordability and our organization is poised to help work together on solutions.”
“Family Reach remains dedicated to our Financial Treatment Program, which helps families facing the financial barriers of cancer today, while working on solutions for families who are diagnosed tomorrow,“ says Andrea Incudine, MPH, Director of Impact at Family Reach. ”We are so honored to be a part of the Costs of Care Affordability Accelerator, because collaborating with others is critical to making the Family Reach vision a reality.“
The first of its kind Affordability Accelerator event will take place virtually on September 17th and 18th, 2021.
About Costs of Care
Costs of Care is a nonprofit organization dedicated to curating and broadly disseminating insights from the front lines of health care to help delivery systems provide better care at lower cost. Since 2009, Costs of Care has collected more than 500 personal accounts from physicians, nurses, and patients all over the United States that illustrate routine and high yield opportunities to improve the value of care delivery through improved decision-making. Costs of Care has created widely adopted and enduring resources to educate medical trainees and clinicians about how to address health care costs and provide high-value care, including the textbook Understanding Value-Based Healthcare, the “COST” framework for designing value improvement projects, multiple workshops, and free, CME-approved video modules. In December 2019, Costs of Care launched the Affordability Moonshot – envisioning a world in which “no one has to choose between their life and their life-savings” – paired with an Affordability Accelerator to support and collaborate on promising ideas to improve patient affordability.
Connect at https://costsofcare.org, be a part of the Moonshot at https://moonshot.costsofcare.org, and follow on Twitter @CostsOfCare.
About Family Reach
Family Reach is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to removing the financial barriers standing between a cancer patient and their treatment. Loss of income, out-of-pocket expenses, and socioeconomic factors create disparities in the financial burdens families face. Family Reach delivers financial education, financial planning, resource navigation, and emergency relief funds to patients and caregivers facing a cancer diagnosis so no family has to choose between their health and their home.
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