The 2,500 page plus bill is daunting in and of itself, but the administration rules that are written as a consequence will dwarf the actual bill itself.  Many of the details of this bill are left up to the HHS Secretary to define.  So what should Secretary Sibelius be focusing on?

Last week a letter was sent to many of the legislators who were responsible for shepherding this bill through the congress and senate.  The letter was sent by Paul O'Neill and Arnie Milstein, two respected leaders who have spent much of their working life trying to change healthcare to make it less costly and defect free.  In the letter they suggest that the government must now support the experiments around the country that are showing promise to reduce cost and improve quality.  One of the most important experiments is the Healthcare Value Leaders Network (www.healthcarevalueleaders.org).  These are the organizations in the U.S. committed to fundamentally changing healthcare delivery with lean.  They are showing remarkable results that are being published in peer review journals (see Articles by John Toussaint).

In addition, the Lean Enterprise Institute will be releasing a book which describes the framework of lean healthcare.  This book is the story of the ThedaCare journey to transform itself including the lessons learned along the way.  We have excerpted the second chapter of this book and sent it to our legislators along with the the well crafted letter from Mr. O'Neill and Dr. Milstein.  Our intent is to influence our government leaders to begin to understand that change in healthcare delivery is possible and in fact, required if we are to bend the cost curve and improve quality.

We invite you to send this link to your legislators and ask them to read the letter, the book chapter and then support the real change that needs to happen.