BY GLORIA BUTLER BALDWIN

Numerous healthcare initiatives are on the table that will decrease medical cost, improve patient satisfaction, change methods of payment, and encourage quality health and decrease medical errors.

· Changing payments to home health agencies. The expected change will be a "pay for performance" method offering agency bonuses for performing at a certain level and a penalty if they fall below a certain level of care.

· Introducing health savings accounts (HSAs) to allow employees to afford high-deductible health insurance and gain control over their healthcare dollars. In addition, HSA-based insurance allows more workers to have insurance for major medical events, thereby reducing the financial burden carried by government and nonprofit entities.

· Placing decisions on choosing healthcare providers back into the hands of consumers and away from insurance companies and employers.

· Making health insurance portable so that when consumers change jobs or even companies, they may take insurance with them, even across state lines.

· Creating association health plans (AHPs), which would allow small employers to join together across state lines to provide the same quality insurance to their local employees provided by larger companies at lower premiums.

· Enacting medical liability reforms to help protect both doctors and patients. Defensive tests ordered by physicians in order to prevent lawsuits drive up healthcare costs and have little or no medical benefit.

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November 2006