Senator Warner joined his freshman colleagues on the Senate floor today to discuss ways to improve the way health care is delivered. It is the sixth time the freshmen have organized to speak-out on the need to adopt meaningful, responsible health reform that cuts costs and reduces the federal deficit.

Today, Senator Warner shared several examples from Virginia about how coordinated care can reform the system's current financial incentives for doctors and hospitals.

• In Richmond, the VCU Health System's Coordinated Care program assigns primary care physicians to the uninsured, reducing the number of costly emergency room visits.

• In Roanoke, Carilion established an accountable care organization that rewards providers for improving patient outcomes and encourages physicians, hospitals, insurance companies, and the government to work together and practice preventative care to reduce patient visits and costs in the long-run.  

• Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk makes extensive use of telemedicine and other technology to monitor patient care at lower cost.  

"As long as our health care system continues to reward providers simply based on quantity rather than quality of care, we are never going to get health care reform right.  By increasing coordination of care, and putting in place smarter financial incentives, we can have higher quality care at lower costs."

Watch the statement below, or click here to read his remarks: