NEWS RELEASE

March 24, 2009
PR-09/10

For additional information:
Jason Hammersla
202-289-6700
(202) 253-5458 (cell)
jhammersla@abcstaff.org

Council applauds initiatives to improve health care quality

WASHINGTON, D.C. — “Health care is the only service or product in America for which we pay consistently high prices and receive inconsistent quality in return. Higher quality health care is essential to reduce costs and improve efficiency in a transformed health care system,” said American Benefits Council President James A. Klein today upon today’s release of Stand for Quality’s Building a Foundation for High Quality, Affordable Health Care: Linking Performance Measurement to Health Reform. The report is supported by a coalition of more than 150 organizations across the health care spectrum. The Council serves on the steering committee of the Stand for Quality coalition.

“Previous efforts to reform the health care system have focused almost exclusively on the vital issue of expanding coverage. One of the most encouraging aspects of the health care reform debate this year is that the equally important issue of improving health quality is also at the center of the discussion,” Klein said.

“The Council is proud to have helped develop these recommendations, which provide a framework for improving the efficiency and affordability of medical care,” Klein said. “These recommendations align closely with the Council’s Condition Critical: Ten Prescriptions for Reforming Health Care Quality, Cost and Coverage, a report that gives equal weight to coverage, quality and cost issues.”

The Stand for Quality report’s six recommendations are:

1. Set national priorities and provide coordination for quality improvement;
2. Endorse and maintain nationally standardized measures;
3. . Develop measures to fill gaps in priority areas;
4. Ensure that providers and other stakeholders have a role in developing policies on use of measures;
5. Collect, analyze, and make performance information available and actionable;
6. Support a sustainable infrastructure for quality improvement.

   The Council’s “Condition Critical” recommended numerous steps to improve quality, including the establishment of a nationwide interoperable health information network to permit the exchange of vital medical records and transparency of price and performance information to encourage continuous quality improvement.

   For more information, or to arrange an interview with Council staff, please contact Jason Hammersla, Council director of communications, at jhammersla@abcstaff.org or by phone at 202-289-6700 (office) or (202) 253-5458 (cell).

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   The American Benefits Council is the national trade association for companies concerned about federal legislation and regulations affecting all aspects of the employee benefits system. The Council’s members represent the entire spectrum of the private employee benefits community and either sponsor directly or administer retirement and health plans covering more than 100 million Americans.