We can't wait on Congress

Hopes that Congress will forge major reforms to curb soaring health care costs and improve access to care have faded. Billionaire Warren Buffett, a strong supporter of President Barack Obama, last week said the bills on the table won't slow the “economic tape worm” that puts U.S. business at a competitive disadvantage and sucks the life out of personal finances.

Back in Eastern Iowa, it seems best we keep trying to take care of our own.

“There are no solutions coming out of Washington,” Mercy Medical Center CEO Tim Charles told Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce members on Thursday.

“The real problems are not being talked about now,” Ted Townsend, St. Luke's Hospital CEO, lamented to our Editorial Board recently.

And the biggest of those problems is cost.

Even though Cedar Rapids drew national recognition last year for its high-quality care at substantially lower prices than the national average, and collaborative innovations such as the Community Health Free Clinic, both hospital leaders readily acknowledge that rising costs are a rising threat in our own backyard.

What can be done?

At the chamber meeting, Charles and Townsend called for more collaboration among Cedar Rapids providers and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to avoid duplication of health-care facilities that tend to drive up cost. UI officials said they're open to such discussions.

But will action follow - and how soon?

Meanwhile, Physicians Clinic of Iowa and the hospitals are pushing ahead with plans for a medical district with St. Luke's and Mercy at book ends. PCI expects to break ground on its “medical mall” facility in October. Hovering about, apparently stalled, is the proposed community cancer center concept.

The district has potential to make more efficient use of our community's considerable medical resources and reputations - Mercy's cancer radiation center, St. Luke's heart facility, as examples - and transform Cedar Rapids into a regional center that attracts and retains more medical specialists and patients. It could also spur economic development benefits.

But will there be collaboration that gets past competitive, territorial practices? That produces more coordinated care for patients? And also contains costs?

Hospital CEOs can't do this on their own. The boards governing St. Luke's and Mercy, and the state Board of Regents, which oversees UI Hospitals & Clinics, must drive collaboration that works for Eastern Iowa.

Do they have the will? The vision? To bend our cost curve anytime soon, we can't afford to wait on Congress.