Four weeks after pledging $2 trillion in savings over the next decade for health care in the United States, six stakeholders presented a cost containment plan to President Barack Obama.

Karen Ignagni

For the insurance industry, this plan could mean greater use of standardization and automation for health care providers and more comparisons among insurance plans to benefit consumers, according to America’s Health Insurance Plans, one of the groups involved.

“Reducing the rate of growth of health care costs is an urgent national priority,” said Karen Ignagni, AHIP’s president and CEO, in a statement. “Unless bold action is taken, the health care system will be unaffordable and crowd out other critical national priorities – a situation which would be devastating to families, employers and our country as a whole.”

AHIP, the national association representing nearly 1,300 member companies providing health coverage to more than 200 million Americans, was joined by the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Service Employees International Union in presenting the plan.

The groups estimate between $150 billion and $180 billion in savings through utilization of care initiatives; $350 billion to $850 billion in chronic care reform; and $500 billion to $700 billion in administrative simplification an cost of doing business changes, according to a June 1 letter to President Obama.

The six organizations reported “solid progress” on their goal to cut costs both under current law and other methods that will “depend on good public policy,” according to their letter.

Representing the insurance industry, AHIP members, along with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, offered a number of reform recommendations, including improving health literacy for Americans, empowering customers through the use of personal health records and aggregating physician performance data.

The organizations also highlighted specific goals to simplify administrative efforts, standardizing and automating claims submissions, eligibility, claims status, payment and remittance.

“The move to fully automating and standardizing administrative transactions will be a watershed event, allowing physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers to reduce their administrative costs substantially,” AHIP wrote in the plan to the president. “The effect throughout the health care industry will be similar to the effect of ATMs being introduced through the banking system.”

As part of market reform, AHIP also advocated for the “comprehensive reform of market rules.”

“We support uniform federal guidelines operationalized at the state level and the creation of portals to make it easier for individuals and small businesses to evaluate and purchase coverage,” the organization wrote. “This will simplify the system and reduce administrative costs.”

The group is advocating that each state provide a list of all insurance plans available to individuals and small employers, featuring comparative information in a common format on price, benefits and quality features for better comparison shopping and determining subsidy eligibility.

“Health plans are strongly committed to the shared goal of making health care more affordable for the American people and putting the health care system on a path to sustainability,” Ignagni said. “Leaders across our entire community have mounted an unprecedented effort to do our part to bend the health care cost curve and create a sustainable system. We will achieve these goals by working within our community and working in collaboration across all other sectors of the health care system.”