Healthcare transparency

HHS is taking its efforts to foster the use of quality data to a new level. The agency announced yesterday that as part of its efforts to make quality information readily available, it was planning to create local groups which would share health quality data for a region.

These "value exchanges," which would include doctors, nurses, hospitals and health systems, health plans, employers and unions, would be run by existing regional health collaboratives. The groups ultimately share …

A study conducted by Medco Health Solutions found that when patients were able to access drug pricing information using an online comparison tool, they were 58 percent more likely to switch to a more cost-effective prescription drug or a lower-cost pharmacy. The survey was drawn from a study of 55,000 people using a tool that helped them choose lower-cost drugs for the prescriptions they were already taking. Medco, of course, is pushing its own Savings Advisor tool, but the study does …

In the era of health savings accounts and consumer-driven health plans, it more important that ever that patients have access to procedure costs before they get hit with a steep bill. But oftentimes even providers don't know what patients will be billed, because the provider can have many different reimbursement schedules for the same procedure.

But patients paying their own way aren't completely helpless. "Despite the complexity, the Internet has begun to open a window on this …

The climate for pharma-to-doctor giveaways may have grown a few degrees colder yesterday, when a pair of advocacy groups kicked off a campaign intended to bring down further restrictions on giveaways. Healthcare consumer group Community Catalyst and Columbia University research group the Institute on Medicine as a Profession are beginning a national initiative calling for tighter limits on drug company relationships with doctors. The initiative is funded by a $6 million grant from the Pew …

Still stinging from its troubles with Vioxx and approved antidepressants that raise suicidal thinking in some teens, the FDA is ready to pay more attention to post-approval drugs. The agency has decided to institute a pilot program under which it will track the way drugs work after they've been on the market for about 18 months. However, it will probably take a year before the program actually kicks off, according to Dr. Steven Galson, director of the agency's drug center. As part of the …

In 2006, employers, managed care plans, trade groups, state governments and federal agencies took an aggressive role in bringing pricing and outcomes data to the public. It looks like the transparency trend that took center stage last year will continue to expand, as CMS announced yesterday that it would post hospitals' heart attack and heart failure death rates on the web. But rather than posting actual death rates, the government will compare hospitals and let patients know if a …

During 2006, employers, managed care plans, trade groups, state governments and federal agencies took a new and aggressive role in bringing pricing and outcomes data to the public, in many …

The Texas Medical Association is not pleased. Leaders of the 41,000 physician trade group have fired off a broadside sharply criticizing the new physician rating system proposed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. The 3.3 million member health plan plans to create a Web-based physician ratings offering, scheduled to go live on January 1, which will use dark blue, light blue and gray ribbons to indicate the extent to which a given physician complies with evidence-based practices. The …

Two Silicon valley firms have joined the founding fathers of a huge new effort to build personal health records for employees, aimed at reducing healthcare costs through improved care process efficiencies. The group, which now includes Intel, Applied Materials, Wal-Mart, BP America and Pitney-Bowes, will shortly announce that they are investing in a non-profit called the Omnimedix …

As in many other states, a group of Ohio employers have gotten together and begun issuing quality ratings for the state's hospitals. And as is often the case, the report has drawn much criticism from hospital administrators. This is the third year in a row that the group, the Employers Health Coalition of Ohio, has issued its Consumer Guide to Ohio Hospital Quality. The report, which grades 153 of the state's hospitals on a five-star scale, uses key three quality indicators to …