Healthcare Leadership Council: 100 Leading Healthcare Organizations Release Disaster Preparedness Recommendations

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 -- The Healthcare Leadership Council issued the following news:

Experts from across healthcare have identified specific policy and regulatory recommendations to improve the nation's ability to prepare for and respond to future health crises. The recommendations are part of a new report released by the Healthcare Leadership Council and Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and result from collaboration with more than 100 private-sector, nonprofit, and government organizations and stakeholders to assess the response to COVID-19 and the nation's existing disaster preparedness infrastructure.

The recommendations include some temporary steps taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic, which have proven beneficial and should be made permanent going forward, the experts say. These include making it easier for public and private organizations to work in partnership, prioritizing supply chain readiness before crises arise, streamlining regulations that allow providers to practice medicine where they are needed most without unwieldy state licensure concerns, and enabling hospitals to meet the needs of all patients during times of surge capacity.

"Public emergencies will continue to happen and may become more frequent and severe," said Mary R. Grealy, president of the Healthcare Leadership Council. "The next pandemic, natural disaster, or global crisis can be handled more effectively with better preparedness. That begins with the government at all levels and the private sector taking action now, while lessons from COVID-19 are still being learned."

Among the report's recommendations, experts highlight the following essential changes:

* Launching a standing disaster preparedness group, appointed by and working with the White House, that will include private sector expertise in areas such as production capacity, supply chain and distribution, data exchange, financing and acute care delivery.

* Modernizing the healthcare supply chain through digitalization, automation, and predictive analytics, with standardized approaches for allocating resources based on need and equity to prevent bidding wars between states and healthcare providers.

* Creating measures to ensure health equity and address disparities, identifying high-risk vulnerable populations and directing resources accordingly.

* Improving economic resilience with strategic incentives such as zero percent loans, federally guaranteed purchase commitments, and geographic diversification of production for critical medical products.

* Building a 21st century public health early warning system that will utilize all available electronic health records and public health data collection.

* Passing legislation and regulatory reform to create rapid response capabilities in areas such as medical licensure portability, telehealth accessibility, and swift access to PPE stockpiles.

* Making it easier and more secure for private industry and government to share data by updating anti-trust laws, enacting strong privacy protections, and ensuring broad access to the data.

The report authors note that private-public partnerships have been essential during the ongoing response to COVID-19 and the recommendations included in the report have buy-in from private-sector, nonprofit, and government stakeholders.

"The COVID-19 pandemic and immediate response has exposed vulnerabilities in the nation's ability to handle a national-scale crisis," said Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, the founding director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. "A positive sign was the organizations and people in the healthcare space who typically are competitors showing willingness to work together for the good of all Americans."

Contributors and Participants:

AdvaMed

AdventHealth

Aetna, a CVS Health Company

Aledade

American Academy of Pediatrics

American Clinical Laboratory Association

American College of Emergency Physicians

American Health Care Association

American Hospital Association

American Medical Association

American Pharmacists Association

American Public Health Association

America's Blood Centers

America's Health Insurance Plans

AmerisourceBergen

Amgen

AMN Healthcare

Anthem

Ascension

Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness

Association of American Medical Colleges

Atrium Health

Baxter

Biogen

Biotechnology Innovation Organization

Bipartisan Policy Center

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee

Bristol Myers Squibb

Business Roundtable

CDC Foundation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Change Healthcare

Cigna/Express Scripts

City of Hope

Civica Rx

Cleveland Clinic

ConnectiveRx

Cotiviti

Deloitte

Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy

ELITE Strategic Services

Epic

Fairview Health Services

Federation of American Hospitals

Genentech

Guardant Health

HCA Healthcare

Health Distribution Alliance

Health Industry Distributors Association

Health Management Systems

Healthcare Leadership Council

Healthcare Ready

In-Q-Tel

IQVIA

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Johnson & Johnson

LabCorp

Leidos

Leslie Platt & Associates

Magellan Health

Mallinckrodt

Marshfield Clinic Health System

Mayo Clinic

McKesson

Medidata Solutions

Medtronic

MemorialCare Health System

Merck

Mount Sinai Health System

National Alliance on Mental Illness

National Association of Chain Drug Stores

National Association of Manufacturers

National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

National Governors Association

National Health Council

National Minority Quality Forum

New York-Presbyterian Hospital

NorthShore University HealthSystem

Office of HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response

Pfizer

Pharmaceutical Care Management Association

Pharmacy HIT Collaborative

PhRMA

Premier Healthcare Alliance

Primary Care Collaborative

SCAN Health Plan

Section 32

Senior Helpers

SSM Health

Stryker

Surescripts

Teledoc Health

Texas Health Resources

The Joint Commission

Thermo Fisher Scientific

The Sequoia Project

Tivity Health

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

UCB

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Vineti

Vizient

ZS Associates

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