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News Release
Silicon Valley/San Francisco Businesses Commit to National Initiative for Improving Quality and Value in Health CareIn a meeting today in Mountain View with HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, 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. More than 15.4 million will benefit by implementation of this initiative in California. Employers and organizations signing on in Mountain View today include: ABL Organization; AeA; AETNA Patient Management; Alta Bates Medical Group; AT&T; Brown & Toland Medical Group; Calco Insurance Brokers & Agents Inc.; California Hospital Association; CalRHIO (California Regional Health Information Organization); CIGNA Healthcare of California; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Con-way; DestinationRx, Inc.; El Camino Hospital; Gardner Family Health Network, Inc.; Integrated Healthcare Association; Intel; IRIS BioTechnologies Inc.; KaiserAir, Inc.; Kaiser Permanente; Lumetra; Mercer Health & Benefits; Pacific Business Group on Health; Palo Alto Medical Foundation; Practice Fusion; RockSolid Systems, Inc.; Safeway Inc.; Silicon Valley Employers Forum; Solectron Corporation; Stanford Hospital and Clinics; Synopsys; Technology Think Tank; United; US Chamber of Commerce; Varian Medical Systems, Inc.; and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Later this week, additional California employers will commit to the initiative at events in Los Angeles and San Diego. The executives pledged to provide quality 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 California are joining with the federal government in adopting the four cornerstones of value-driven health care.” California 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 leading California 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 costs they will incur. By making this information available, employers can help their employees get better care and better value in health care." For most purchases, consumers expect to compare cost and quality as they make decisions. But until now, this information has not been available in the health care sector. Patients have not been able to compare provider performance, either on dimensions of quality or on cost. "Patients will come to expect quality and performance information about health care providers," said Secretary Leavitt. "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," Secretary Leavitt said. California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative, a nonprofit arm of the Pacific Business Group on Health, 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 California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative 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." More information on Value-Driven Health Care is available at www.hhs.gov/transparency. For a full list of companies that have signed statements of support, including those signing in California 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 16, 2007 |
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