Value-Driven Health Care

• NCQA: Profession is "clearly on the right path" with ABO
• American Board of Family Medicine Obstetrics® Formed
• Breaking News:
  Bipartisan Health Care Reform Proposal Ties PQRI to Board Certification, Maintenance of Certification
• Value-Driven Health Care:
  An overview from Health & Human Services
• The Purchaser Guide to Value-Driven Health Care:
  A comprehensive overview of the rationale and ongoing activity
• Health Reform Outreach By State:
  The primary U.S. government Web page
• What Others are Saying
• Continuing Education Requirements by State

Health care is evolving and the expectations of consumers, insurers, the government and other third parties are changing. More than two years ago, President Bush signed an Executive Order to promote transparency in the health care programs administered or sponsored by the federal government. Then U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt broadened the challenge to other health care purchasers. His challenge was to implement “four cornerstones of value-driven health care” by:

• Utilizing health information technology
• Measuring and publishing quality information
• Measuring and publishing price information
• Creating positive incentives for high quality, efficient health care.

Value-driven health care employs standardized methods for measuring health care quality and pricing information. It puts this information into the hands of consumers so that they can make informed health care decisions. The push for transparency and accountability continues under the national health care policy reform movement, which has two primary goals – improving quality and reducing costs.