Health reform requires revolutionary thinking

LONGMONT – If you want to change a health-care system, revolutionary thinking and behavior is imperative.

That was the word from Mike Slubowski, president and chief executive of Denver-based SCL Health System, who was the keynote speaker at “Pulse: What’s Next with Health-Care Reform” presented Tuesday by the Boulder County Business Report at the Plaza Convention Center in Longmont.

SCL Health System is a $2.7 billion nonprofit, faith-based organization operating 11 hospitals and more than 100 ambulatory centers in four states, including Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette.

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SCL plans to spend $4 billion to $5 billion in care management in the future to meet changing needs in the industry, Slubowski said. Health-system executives are focused on partnerships with select health-care industry companies as well as mergers and acquisitions, he said.

“I truly believe in the environment of health reform. The incumbent will not be able to survive in the future,” Slubowski said.

For example, SCL Health System in February said it would partner with Lumeris Inc. on accountable-care services – things like electronic medical records data, medical claims and lab and pharmacy data, Slubowski said. The strategy is to improve the quality of patient care and to lower costs at SCL’s hospitals and clinics, the health system said at the time. Financial details of the partnership with Lumeris, based in St. Louis, Missouri, were not made public.

In March, SCL said it would form a home-care partnership with Univita Health in Scottsdale, Arizona. As hospitals face pressure to lower costs, getting patients into home recovery can help, Slubowski said.

Health-reform changes sweeping the industry puts a focus on people-centered care, Slubowski said. For health-care providers, that means treating patients as members and participants, rather than as passive bystanders, he said. The word patient means to wait, and health-care consumers are anything but, he said.

“It’s understanding the health needs and the costs,” Slubowski said. “Quality and the care experience, are Job One. It’s the price of admission.”

Health-care reform changes also have SCL Health System committing to breaking even on Medicare costs within three years, Slubowski said. Already, SCL has reduced Medicare costs by about $100 million, but it has about another $150 million to go, he said.

SCL Health System will continue to offer health care to people who can’t afford it, Slubowski said. On an annual basis, the health system provides close to $100 million in health services per year, or about $250,000 per day, he said.