Appendix B

Statement of Task

An ad hoc committee will organize and convene a 2-day public workshop in Washington, DC. Through this workshop, the committee will bring together public- and private-sector partners to discuss approaches to aligning health care system incentives with the American public’s need for a health care system that is optimally prepared and scalable to manage acutely ill and injured patients during a disaster, public health emergency, or other mass casualty event. Specific topics that may be explored in this workshop include

• The degree to which the public and private health care systems self-identify as key components of the U.S. disasters and national security infrastructure;
• The interest among health care institutions in developing collaborations across public and private sectors with the aim of strengthening capacity to respond to disasters and public health emergencies;
• The possible key levers that would motivate private-sector investment in system capacity building for disaster and public health emergency response, including those levers that already exist, but are not currently used as incentives to expand this capacity (quality measurement, grant programs, alternative payment models, tax benefits, etc.);
• The possible strategies to overcome key challenges to applying existing incentives to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the management of critically ill and injured patients on a day-to-day basis and during emergency response scenarios;

• The possible key sources of information and data elements that could be used to improve situational awareness of public- and private-sector health care facility capacity and capabilities to respond to disasters and public health emergencies; and
• The degree to which Department of Defense or Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals could be used as a part of the U.S. response to disasters and public health emergencies requiring a health care response.

The committee will develop the agenda for the workshop session, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussions. Workshop proceedings will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines, based on the presentations and discussions held during the workshop. The proceedings will be subject to appropriate review procedures before release.