250-Day Update

Transform the Health System

Vision

In 5,000 days, the Secretary sees a nation in which...

• Wellness and prevention are sought as rigorously as treatment.
• The under-served have ready access to a network of care, and sustainable government subsidies are provided on the basis of age, disability, and economic situation.
• Every American has access to catastrophic health insurance that is portable and affordable.
• Health care and insurance markets are competitive and open to everyone. Information about the quality and price of health care is widely available and Americans have a sense of ownership about choices for health care and their health.
• Commonsense medical liability reform makes health care more affordable and accessible.
• Inequalities in health care are eliminated.
• Health records are linked through an interoperable system that protects privacy.
• Improved regulatory processes safely make new drugs, procedures, and technology available in less time and at half the current cost. Information about advances is proactively communicated to providers and patients.
• Medical treatment is personal, predictive, preventative, participatory, and payable.
• Research objectives reflect health care needs. Scientific advances benefit people, reducing the burden of chronic diseases and reducing risks from biological, chemical, and radiological threats.
• Comprehensive, novel early prevention and detection strategies increase healthy life potential:
• • Cancer is preventable and curable.
  • Obesity and its consequences are reduced.
  • Causes of mental, neurological, and behavioral diseases are better understood and managed.

Strategy

In the next 500 days, the Secretary will concentrate on...

• Supporting community-based approaches to reduce health disparities that affect racial, ethnic, and under-served populations.
• Working with state and local leadership to create a next-generation health care infrastructure to replace that ravaged along the Gulf Coast by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Fulfilling the President’s goals for expanding health center availability.
• Extending and improving the lives of those living with HIV and AIDS by working to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act.
• Empowering consumers by working with purchasers, insurance providers, and the health care industry to provide full information about pricing and the quality of care.
• Encouraging consumers and providers to stimulate efficiency in the market so increases in the cost of health care more closely approximate other parts of the economy.
• Pushing for medical liability reform.
• Fostering growth in the number of health savings accounts as a low-cost insurance alternative.
• Advancing health information technology by establishing standards for interoperability, privacy, and data exchange and developing prototypes for the National Health Information Network.
• Harnessing health information technology to reduce medical mistakes, lower health care costs, reduce hassle, and promote better health through breakthroughs in patient registration, electronic health records, chronic disease management, and bio-surveillance.
• Supporting utilization of health information breakthroughs by using the buying power of government-paid health care and by encouraging purchasers to incentivize their health insurance plans to support early breakthroughs in health information technology.
• Implementing a comprehensive plan for obesity research that will provide individuals and families with sound, evidence-based methods for preventing and reducing obesity.
• Preventing new HIV infections by encouraging abstinence before marriage and helping individuals know their HIV status.
• Improving the clinical research network to advance more effective prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of disease.
• Establishing early detection and prevention strategies and promoting the rapid translation of scientific research into affordable, reliable, and safer treatments.
• Creating an integrated network of privacy-protected population data, genetic information, and public health records to accelerate discoveries that will define an individual’s risk of disease, response to treatment, and likelihood of side effects.
• Building interdisciplinary research teams that combine skills and knowledge from the biological, physical, and social sciences to yield biomedical insights.
• Facilitating the Drug Safety Oversight Board’s objective to monitor and respond to post-market adverse drug incidents.

Modernize Medicare and Medicaid

Vision

In 5,000 days, the Secretary sees a nation in which...

• Medicare and Medicaid are modernized to provide financially sustainable high-quality health care.
• Medicare and Medicaid provide expanded choices of plans and treatments.
• Medicaid benefits are tailored to need, allowing millions more to obtain insurance.
• Seniors and people with disabilities can be cared for in their home or community at their option.
• Americans understand the growing need to reform and take control of entitlement spending.
• Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries are cost-conscious consumers.
• Medicare and Medicaid are leaders in use of advanced technologies and performance measures.

Strategy

In the next 500 days, the Secretary will concentrate on...

• Implementing Medicare Part D by ensuring eligible individuals enroll in the program and that beneficiaries can seamlessly access their benefits.
• Eliminating inappropriate financing mechanisms that weaken the Medicaid program.
• Implementing and extending new tools in Medicaid to ensure that program dollars cover the maximum number of people, make consumers more cost-conscious, and allow home and community care for the elderly and persons with disabilities.
• Creating workable methods of rewarding health providers for positive outcomes.
• Leading collaborative development and use of health information technology, quality measurement, and pay-for-performance.
• Working with Congress in a bipartisan way to build support for Medicare and Medicaid entitlement reform.

Secure the Homeland

Vision

In 5,000 days, the Secretary sees a nation in which...

• All Americans benefit from a disease monitoring system that provides early warning.
• Disaster response is seamless and rapid when needed anywhere in the United States.
• Communities and states know how to prepare themselves and help others.
• Surge manufacturing capacity and stockpiles of medical countermeasures are sufficient.

Strategy

In the next 500 days, the Secretary will concentrate on...

• Working to build a disease monitoring system that provides early warning of naturally occurring or terrorist-induced outbreaks of infectious disease.
• Implementing the BioSense Real Time Clinical Connection in hospital emergency departments in all 31 BioWatch cities so that a variety of health data may be used for early event detection and situational awareness.
• Working with states, tribes, and communities on preparedness for the public health consequences of a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or an influenza pandemic.
• Assessing the capability of local and state public health departments, and using risk-based investment to enhance emergency preparedness.
• Preparing for a potential influenza pandemic through the development of local, state, and federal planning, and by conducting preparedness exercises.
• Increasing domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity to be able to provide every American with pandemic influenza vaccine within six months of the isolation of the pandemic virus and development of a vaccine reference strain for large-scale industrial production.
• Enhancing the content and readiness of the Strategic National Stockpile and the ability to distribute it effectively.
• Expanding the range of needed medical countermeasures.
• Developing a deployable mass-casualty care capability to enhance medical surge capacity in response to a variety of threat scenarios, including an influenza pandemic.
• Aligning the force structure and deployment readiness of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps with current needs.
• Enhancing the capabilities of HHS and its partners to implement the public health and medical component, Emergency Support Function #8, of the National Response Plan.
• Working with state and local governments to provide disaster victims with coordinated enrollment and delivery of health care services when disasters incapacitate traditional program infrastructure.

Protect Life and Human Dignity

Vision

In 5,000 days, the Secretary sees a nation in which...

• Children are protected from abuse and neglect.
• Seniors and persons with disabilities are cared for with dignity and respect.
• Faith-based and community groups have equal access to government grants.
• Government policies foster self-reliance and reward work.
• The values of protection of life and sexual abstinence outside of marriage are supported by public policies and taught to future generations.
• Family interests are protected and marriages strengthened.

Strategy

In the next 500 days, the Secretary will concentrate on...

• Supporting a culture of life and family in domestic and international policies.
• Streamlining the foster care system to speed the placement of foster children in adoptive homes, and removing barriers to foster care services and placements between the federal government and the states.
• Helping parents and families understand the importance of a stimulating environment and cognitive development in the earliest years of life, through enhanced HHS initiatives and collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education.
• Strengthening Head Start through enhanced coordination with state and local agencies.
• Supporting the First Lady’s initiatives on Helping America’s Youth and Women’s Health and Wellness.
• Promoting economic self-sufficiency among families receiving welfare through enhanced work requirements and support, healthy marriage education, and fatherhood initiatives.
• Furthering the President’s New Freedom Initiative to promote participation by all Americans with disabilities, including mental disabilities, in their communities.
• Expanding choices for individuals in federal programs by increasing participation of faith-based and community groups.

Improve the Human Condition Around the World

Vision

In 5,000 days, the Secretary sees a nation in which...

• More of the world’s people live in freedom.
• The United States is recognized as a leader among nations for caring and compassion.
• The threat of pandemic flu has been reduced and nations of the world are prepared.
• HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are reduced all around the world.

Strategy

• In the next 500 days, the Secretary will concentrate on...
• Supporting emerging democracies with health diplomacy.
• Working collaboratively to plan and prepare for the threat of pandemic flu.
• Expanding the international network of early warning infectious disease surveillance.
• Implementing on schedule the goals of the President’s Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria relief.