Pawlenty says new healthcare plan will ‘transform system’

08/01/2006

Dane Smith, Star Tribune
Last update: July 31, 2006 – 11:35 PM

On a fly-around and with much fanfare, Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced on Monday the launch of a program aimed at reducing the state government’s health care costs.

Pawlenty said his QCare proposal would “transform the health care system.” But his political adversaries described the plan as a minor improvement, calling it an election-year effort to disguise a weak record in responding to skyrocketing health care costs.

Election Day is 99 days away, and the five-city tour on a state aircraft also drew fire from DFL opponents who accused Pawlenty of campaigning at taxpayer expense.

DFL Party chair Brian Melendez called the trip “a whistle-stop tour” and “campaign-style” travel.

Pawlenty said that the trip was a proper government expense and that he has been working on the QCare initiative for months, in concert with health-care sector leaders.

At the unveiling of the initiative in St. Paul, Pawlenty was joined by about a dozen of the state’s top health care officials, from the private and public sector, including HMO executives and doctors.

“You still have to go forward,” Pawlenty said. “Just because there’s a campaign doesn’t mean the government stops working.”

The fly-around to Moor-head, St. Cloud, St. Paul, Mankato and Rochester was a typical foray for Pawlenty, by all accounts one of the most travelled governors in modern times. A multi-stop trip around the state costs about $2,600, spokesman Brian McClung said.

Optimal care

Under QCare, state government will set standards of “optimal care” for treatment of diabetes, cardiac problems, hospital stays and preventative care.”

Diabetes patients, for instance, would be monitored to see that they are meeting the quality standards for blood-sugar level, cholesterol, blood pressure, daily aspirin use and tobacco abstention. Health care providers who help their patients meet those standards would be paid more.

The initiative applies only to the health care bought by the state for its own employees, for the elderly and welfare patients under Medical Assistance and for low-income working families under MinnesotaCare.

Administration officials estimated that QCare can save about $153 million a year on annual health care spending of about $4 billion, or about 3.5 percent. The savings amount to less than half of 1 percent on the state’s total health care spending of about $30 billion, but Pawlenty said he hopes the concept will spread to local governments and private-sector systems.

Pawlenty said the QCare idea fits with his administration’s broader theme of a results-oriented state government and performance-based pay. Pawlenty’s program that gives school districts incentive to experiment with merit pay for public school teachers has been labelled “QComp.”

Pawlenty, who said the idea has bipartisan support, was joined at his St. Paul news conference by one DFLer, state Sen. Linda Berglin of Minneapolis. The author of a proposal similar to QCare, Berglin said her presence at the news conference should not be misconstrued as support of Pawlenty’s overall record on health care.

“Just because I agree with one part doesn’t mean the 36,000 people who got thrown off of MinnesotaCare under this governor are better off,” Berglin said.

Pawlenty’s DFL-endorsed opponent, Attorney General Mike Hatch, said the QCare idea actually has been around awhile under the nickname “disease management.”

“It’s an old idea, and there might be some benefits, but there are reports out by the Congressional Budget Office that suggest it’s not saving much money at all,” Hatch said. “And on health care problems in general, this governor has been in a coma.”