Federal value-driven health care initiative

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt last week released summaries from four Federal departments and agencies on their work toward achieving the goals of a 2006 Presidential Executive Order on measuring quality and value in health care (source: HHS news release, Aug. 23, 2007). The Executive Order's four goals were to: 1) Connect the health care system through the adoption of interoperable health information technology; 2) Measure and make available results on the quality of health care delivery; 3) Measure and make available price information on the costs of health care items and services; and 4) Align incentives so that payers, providers, and patients benefit when care delivery is focused on achieving the best value of health care at the lowest cost.

Examples of meeting these goals by Federal agencies include the Office of Personnel Management promoting health care price and quality transparency through its contracts with private sector insurance carriers, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services providing a payment update to hospitals that report on a core set of quality measures for patients with conditions such as heart failure, heart disease, and pneumonia. More information is available here and here.

A number of Ohio organizations and businesses are participating in this effort, including the Health Action Council of Northeastern Ohio, Ohio KePRO, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), Ohio Transmission Corporation, and the Health Service Review of Ohio (source: Employer statements of support), while earlier this year Governor Strickland signed a statement in support of the value-drive health care goals (source: state and local government support).