Friday, March 2, 2007
Contact: Jessica Robinson, 573-751-0290
Secretary Leavitt, Governor Blunt Host Health Care Summit
ST. LOUIS–Gov. Matt Blunt and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael Leavitt today hosted a summit to discuss ways to build a health care system that has better patient care, higher quality care and increased value for the consumer. At the event, Blunt signed an executive order to help provide Missourians information to help empower them to make informed decisions to find the best health care available.
“One of the ways to improve the quality of life for all Missourians is to help them access high quality, affordable health care,” Blunt said. “Today’s executive order will help build a better health care system for Missourians with better patient care. Supporting transparency empowers the health care consumer, and an informed consumer is better able to find high quality care.”
The Health Care Transparency Summit, titled Better Care, Lower Costs: Creating a Value-Driven Health Care Market in St. Louis, reviewed four shared strategies to improve health care quality and affordability. The four strategies are quality transparency, price transparency, interoperable health information systems and incentives to reward value.
The governor’s executive order directs state agencies that administer or sponsor health care programs to support interoperable health information systems, support developing and implementing objective quality standards for health care services, make procedure and service pricing information available, and to make every effort to deliver high-quality, cost-effective health care, that may include consumer-directed health care plans and reimbursement methods that reward providers for results. The governor directed state agencies to submit a plan for implementing the order by June 30, 2007.
Blunt is currently leading the effort in Missouri to create a new health care delivery system for the state that focuses on wellness and prevention. The governor’s MO HealthNet proposal will put people first and improve the health of our most vulnerable citizens by making them active participants in their health care decisions. MO HealthNet will be a model of innovation in health care delivery for the entire nation.
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