MAY 10, 2006 HEARING: The Next Generation of Health Information Tools for Consumers
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Although newer financial incentives have set the stage for improving the performance of our health care system, health care consumers, providers, and payers need better information to improve the quality of their choices and decision making (particularly at or near the point of service). The hearing will address the current and future state of health care information that is essential to further improvements in consumer-driven health care, health savings accounts, other forms of employer-sponsored health insurance, and Medicare. This hearing will also examine the information component of proposed initiatives for pay-for-performance and value-based purchasing, and its future impact on health spending growth rates and health outcomes, primarily from the perspective of end-user consumers and the agents who serve them.
Neither financial incentives to consumers, nor top-down efforts to reengineer health care delivery systems, by themselves may be able to change future trends in health care costs and quality without the intermediation of value-enhancing information resources. Hearing witnesses will discuss the extent to which relevant and usable health care information involving value (the best mix of cost, price, quality, treatment outcomes, and overall health improvement) is available to empowered consumers, how it may be best delivered and utilized, and how public policy can enrich, expand, and exploit its full potential.
Although newer financial incentives have set the stage for improving the performance of our health care system, health care consumers, providers, and payers need better information to improve the quality of their choices and decision making (particularly at or near the point of service). The hearing will address the current and future state of health care information that is essential to further improvements in consumer-driven health care, health savings accounts, other forms of employer-sponsored health insurance, and Medicare. This hearing will also examine the information component of proposed initiatives for pay-for-performance and value-based purchasing, and its future impact on health spending growth rates and health outcomes, primarily from the perspective of end-user consumers and the agents who serve them.
Neither financial incentives to consumers, nor top-down efforts to reengineer health care delivery systems, by themselves may be able to change future trends in health care costs and quality without the intermediation of value-enhancing information resources. Hearing witnesses will discuss the extent to which relevant and usable health care information involving value (the best mix of cost, price, quality, treatment outcomes, and overall health improvement) is available to empowered consumers, how it may be best delivered and utilized, and how public policy can enrich, expand, and exploit its full potential.
