What is value-driven healthcare?
In August 2006, President Bush signed an Executive Order requiring all those hospitals, physicians and other caregivers delivering health care services to federal beneficiaries in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Veterans and Military Health Systems and civilian federal employees (covered by the Office of Personnel Management) to make the quality and cost (price) of their services known. To do business with the federal government going forward, hospitals, physicians and health plans must:
-Provide price and quality information about doctors and hospitals and all other providers for all enrollees in their health care insurance programs;
-Help enrollees to use this information in their choice of health plans, providers and health care treatment options;
-Provide financial and professional incentives to providers, payers and patients to promote the delivery of higher quality care; and
-Promote interoperable health information technology systems to improve continuously the quality, safety and efficiency of health care.
How is this value-driven healthcare initiative being expanded to the private sector?
For the past several months, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt has been traveling around the country (including the Metropolitan NYC area and New Jersey) to get major corporations and insurers to commit to these same value driven practices as their federal counterparts have. As of the middle of February, more than 175 major companies and insurers (up from 100 in December) have pledged to abide by this Federal Health Care Transparency Plan (http://www.hhs.gov/transparency).
On Valentine’s Day in NYC, alone, employers and insurers signing on to the Value Driven Health Care Initiative included: Aetna, New York Life, Merrill Lynch, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, AIG, KeySpan, IPRO, STV Inc., Group Health Inc., Cigna, AmeriChoice, Siemens, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, Alcoa, Lowes, Partnership for NYC , J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, the Business Council of New York State and the New York Business Group on Health. For a complete list of companies who have signed statements of support, including those signing in New York on February 14, please see: http://www.hhs.gov/transparency/employers/statements.html.