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News Release
Indiana Businesses Commit to National Initiative for Improving Quality and Value in Health Care INDIANAPOLIS (March 7, 2007) – In a meeting today in Indianapolis with HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and Governor Mitch Daniels, executives from area businesses signed statements of support for a national initiative aimed at improving health care quality, information and cost-effectiveness for employees and their families. Governor Mitch Daniels also agreed to support the effort, signing an Executive Order committing the State of Indiana to this initiative for the Sstate's 30,000 employees. The Indiana Health Information Exchange was recognized as a pilot site to pioneer new methods of reporting on quality of care. Altogether, more than 2.3 million people will benefit by implementation of this initiative in Indiana. Employers signing on from Indiana include Anaclim; Purdue University; United Healthcare; Caterpillar Inc.; Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce; Clarian Health Partners; WellPoint, Inc.; Wishard Health Services; Henriott Group; Indiana Chamber; City of Indianapolis - Marion County; Marsh Supermarkets, LLC; United Healthcare Indiana / Kentucky; Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield; Melton Investments and Management LLC; Indiana University; Schmidt Associates, Inc.; Cummins, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Co.; Daimler Chrysler and General Motors The Governor and executives pledged to provide quality of care and price information about doctors, hospitals and other medical providers for all enrollees in their health care insurance programs. This information will help employees choose health care providers based on the quality of care they deliver and the prices they charge. In addition, the employers will support health information technology by encouraging the use of recognized interoperability standards in the health IT products used by their health plans. They also pledged to develop incentives for achieving better value in health care, including incentives for high quality care and for more active involvement by employees in choosing their health care services. President Bush committed federal health programs to the four cornerstones through an Executive Order last August. In November, Secretary Leavitt invited all employers, in both the private and public sectors, to take these same four steps. By committing to these goals, Secretary Leavitt said, "Our individual actions will be aligned toward reaching the common national goal of better health at lower costs for all Americans. Today, purchasers in Indiana are joining with the federal government in adopting the four cornerstones of value-driven health care.” Governor Daniels and the Indiana businesses join a growing number of states and companies that are pledging to make quality and price information available to health plan enrollees in order to enable them to compare providers when they purchase health care services. "I am proud that Governor Daniels and leading Indiana employers are choosing to support these four cornerstones to achieve better health care and better value for employees and their families," Secretary Leavitt said. "Until now, it has not been possible for patients to learn in advance about the quality of care they can expect to receive from a provider, or the cost of the services they will incur." By making this information available, employers can help their employees get better care and better value in health care. The Indiana Health Information Exchange was recognized as a pilot site to provide better quality information (BQI) to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries. There are six collaboratives in the country that have been chosen as pilots to pioneer new methods of reporting on quality of care, especially through the use of Medicare data. The techniques proven by these pilot sites will be used by other collaboratives in the future as we build a national network of organizations for providing information to help compare the performance and costs of health care providers. "Six organizations have been chosen to lead the way as we develop a national network for public reporting, and I'm proud to officially designate the Indiana Health Information Exchange as one of these," Secretary Leavitt said. "Their work will help pioneer a new era of public reporting and improved value for health care providers." Governor Daniels noted, "There's a lot of great work going on in Indiana right now to empower Hoosiers to make the best health care decisions possible. Our health care plan under consideration by the Indiana General Assembly incorporates the principles of the President's health care reform initiative. Yesterday, we issued our first medical errors report, and the Executive Order I'm signing today will help make better price and quality information available to everyone." "With the commitment that Indiana employers like these are now making, I expect many changes in health care," Secretary Leavitt said. "Patients will come to expect quality and performance information about health care providers. They will expect to have price or cost information in advance to make good value decisions about their care. They will use this information to improve health care value for themselves and their families. And the choices they make will help improve value and health care quality across the health care sector." More information on Value-Driven Health Care is available at www.hhs.gov/transparency. For a full list of companies who have signed statements of support, including those signing in Indiana today, visit: http://www.hhs.gov/transparency/employers/statements.html.
### Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news. Last revised: March 7, 2007 |
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