Federal Action

Moving the Marketplace

Together, the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, and Veterans Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management are the biggest purchaser of health care in the nation. Federal programs cover some 93 million people, nearly 40 percent of the nation's insured.

We are using this critical mass to begin moving the marketplace.

Executive Order

On August 22, 2006, President Bush issued an Executive Order, Promoting Quality and Efficient Health Care in Federal Government Administered or Sponsored Health Care Programs, to ensure all federal agencies and those who do health care business with the government incorporate the cornerstones of health care transparency, requiring:

• Aggregated health care quality and price information be available to beneficiaries, enrollees, and providers in a readily usable manner.
• Interoperable health IT products be used, and quality and price data be aggregated and shared.
• Federal participants are motivated to become involved consumers with the power of choice and a reason to advocate a value-driven health care system.