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CCH® BENEFITS — 4/3/07

Employers Look To Providers To Speed Up Health Care Transparency

from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: Large employers are working toward achieving transparency in health care pricing, quality of care, and efficiency, but they want doctors and hospitals to move ahead more quickly, according to a survey jointly conducted by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) and Mercer Health & Benefits LLC. The results of the NBGH/Mercer Transparency in Health Care survey were released on March 16 and reflect the responses of 120 employers, about half (56) of which have 20,000 or more employees.

Last summer, President George W. Bush issued an executive order directing federal agencies that administer or sponsor federal health insurance programs to increase transparency in quality of care and in pricing, encourage adoption of health information technology standards, and create positive incentives that promote quality and efficiency in health care. In addition, Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt has been traveling cross-country enlisting employers to adopt the “four cornerstones” of “value-driven health care.”

“One of the most important things employers can do to drive change in health care is to join with other employers and the government to leverage our collective purchasing power to foster transparency,” said NBGH president Helen Darling.

“Employers need to rally more forcefully behind Secretary Leavitt’s challenge to urge the public posting of Medicare claims data and engage the provider community in advancing transparency,” agreed Linda Havlin, worldwide partner with Mercer Health & Benefits.

The following are among the survey’s findings:

• About three-fifths (61%) of respondents were aware of Mr. Leavitt’s initiative; of those, 31% had signed a letter of support and another 4% indicated that they will definitely do so. Although none of the respondents said that they will definitely not sign, 10% said that they probably will not sign. The most common reasons the nonsigners gave for their reluctance were concerns about the fit with the organization and its employees and the expectation that the marketplace, rather than employers, will drive these measures.
• 44% of all respondents (57% of those with 20,000 or more employees) thought that the current ability to measure provider performance is adequate and that measurement should begin now (30% said that provider performance cannot yet be adequately measured and 26% did not know).
• Most respondents cited resistance from physicians (82%) and hospitals (77%) as one of the most significant barriers to provider performance measurement efforts; far fewer cited resistance from health care plans (36%) or cost (40%). More than 60% also saw insufficient measures and data as barriers.
• Half of the respondents said that release of Medicare claims data is a high priority for their organization; nearly all respondents (94%) thought that Medicare release of its data on provider cost and quality will be at least somewhat useful to consumers.
• Two-fifths of the respondents said that they participate in a collaborative initiative focused on improving health care quality and/or cost-efficiency.
• More than one-fourth of the respondents (29%) reported that they currently make some provider quality/cost information available to members; 47% of those thought that this had resulted in improvements in quality/cost (but 21% doubted that there had been improvement and 32% did not know).
• Nearly all (96%) of the respondents believed that adoption of health information technology standards will improve at least somewhat the quality of care or its cost-efficiency.

For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.

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