Is Health Care Transparency Truly Possible?–Blog by Carolyn Pare, Action Group President and CEO
The Action Group has long subscribed to the idea that it takes ready access to meaningful cost and quality information to build a health care system that pays for quality and outcomes, instead of for more services that do not lead to better health (and may even cause harm).
Importantly, we consider transparency from all angles, and foster collaboration between businesses, health plans and systems, health care providers, consumers, and political leaders. This is because today’s unfortunate reality is every stakeholder has too little information about the relative cost and quality of health care services.
The Action Group is committed to advancing health care transparency in Minnesota and across the nation in the following ways:
Driving purchaser value
Through our multi-stakeholder Specialty Drug Guiding Coalition, and our Mental Health Learning Network, we are identifying actionable purchasing reforms. We are also collaborating with the MN Department of Health to define employer value through the state’s All Payer Claims Database, and encouraging every hospital in the state to participate with The Leapfrog Group’s hospital safety ratings.
Enhancing care delivery
By evolving the MN Bridges to Excellence (MNBTE) Program, and supporting the growth of Advance Care Planning initiatives, we contribute to ensuring patients get the care they need, when and where they need it.
Empowering consumers/employees
By promoting and supporting the National Diabetes Prevention Program and Choosing Wisely, we help employers empower their employees to take control of their health and health care.
Building professional capability
Our Annual Employer Benefits Survey offers insights into how employers are tackling transparency shortcomings. And our Annual Employer Leadership Summit focuses on trends in advancing health care marketplace transparency.
Enabling a high-performing coalition
By partnering with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, and engaging in national health care reform activities, we are on the leading edge of U.S. transparency initiatives that serve Minnesotans well.
We have come a long way toward helping ensure that people receive the right care, at the right time, at the right price, and we will continue to develop and advocate for uniting, innovative, sustainable transparency solutions.
Related and Interesting:
“The push to bring transparency to health care pricing and quality has been going on for years, but still the industry undoubtedly remains one of the nation’s most opaque. The scarcity of price and quality information is often blamed on the high cost of care.”
(From Modern Healthcare’s Special Report: Achieving Transparency in Healthcare)
Carolyn Pare is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Minnesota Health Action Group.