Saturday, February 25, 2006

The below appeared in the Commonwealth Fund enewsletter this past week. It appears that policy in the state legislature in Madison is lining up well with the Bush administration's policy on market reform. Clearly, forces are converging on the necessity for transparency in pricing and for transparency in reporting standard measures of quality (particularly outcomes). Comparable quality and price metrics (apples to apples) is another step to a more fundamental market reform of health care services.

Bush Hints at Legislation on Price Transparency
FEBRUARY 15, 2006 -- Legislation may be needed to ensure that hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers give consumers more detailed information about the cost of health care services, President Bush said Wednesday during an appearance in Dublin, Ohio.
"I know members of Congress are working on a bill. It would be better this be done with people saying, 'oh, we understand it's important to be transparent,'" Bush said. "There's always a bill out there in case the volunteerism is not quite as strong as it should be."
Bush added that on Thursday, "I'm going to have a little visit with people in the insurance industry and the health care industry and the business industry to encourage transparency." On Tuesday, hospital industry and administration officials met to discuss price transparency issues.

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