Bush Orders Transparent Health Price and Quality Data
[Posted 10/12/06]

President Bush in August issued an executive order directing federal agencies to collect more information about the quality and cost of health care they provide and to share that data with one another and with beneficiaries. Administration officials said the order is intended to bring greater transparency to the business of medicine. There is no current timetable for implementation.

The executive order affects four agencies—Medicare, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the Indian Health Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense TRICARE Program—and requires them to make public the prices that the agencies pay physicians and other health care providers for common procedures.

The order also requires the agencies to establish programs to measure and reward quality of care and use certified, interoperable health information technology to facilitate data tracking and sharing.

CMA will be working closely with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other federal officials to ensure physicians have input on how the executive order is implemented.

“CMA fully supports the President’s goals. But only if the implementation is reasonably constructed with physician input,” says CMA CEO Jack Lewin, M.D. “The specter of unfunded mandates could have catastrophic consequences for Medicare access. We will be watching carefully to represent the interests of physicians on how and when these ideas are implemented.”

CMA has told CMS that any credible quality-reporting program must provide for strong physician input on how “quality” is defined and measured, ensure that physicians are appropriately reimbursed, and provide IT support so that physicians can afford to participate in such a program.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.