The Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project is a group of leading employer, consumer, and labor organizations working toward a common goal to ensure that all Americans have access to publicly reported health care performance information. Our shared vision is that with this information, Americans will be better able to select hospitals, physicians, and treatments based on nationally standardized measures for clinical quality, consumer experience, equity, and efficiency.

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August 31, 2010
Comments on CMS' proposed changes to the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System

In a comment letter to CMS, 27 consumer, labor, and employer organizations supported the agency's plans to improve quality reporting in the hospital outpatient setting. Over the course of the next few years, CMS expects to expand the number of measures being reported by hospital outpatient facilities with a focus on many areas that are important to consumers and purchasers (e.g., overuse, efficiency, care coordination and transitions). The Disclosure Project also developed a backgrounder on the proposed changes.

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August 24, 2010
Comments to CMS on Medicare Physician Payment for 2011

Twenty-four consumer, labor, and employer organizations urged CMS to take bolder strides in transforming physician payment. They underscored the need to rapidly develop robust foundations for value-based purchasing -- effective measurement, data collection, and reporting. They also emphasized the importance of reforming how physician services are valued so they reflect the perspectives of patients and society as a whole. Read comments.

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July 2010
"Meaningful Use" Criteria Will Be Meaningful

Purchasers and consumers have a right to expect that the federal tax dollars used for health IT adoption will lead to significant improvements in health care quality and provider accountability. The inclusion of pharmacy, imaging and lab orders in electronic records can improve patient safety and reduce duplication by automatically by applying evidence-based rules and care alerts. Click here for more information on the final rules for the first stage of meaningful use. The Disclosure Project held a briefing on the how the final rules align with the perspectives of consumers and purchasers, and what the next steps for meaningful use will entail.

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April 1, 2010
National Health Reform Has Now Become Law

With the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010, the stage is set for health insurance coverage for most Americans, bending the cost curve, and improving care delivery. This bill is historic and importantly for the efforts of the Disclosure Project contains a wide array of provisions that have the potential to dramatically improve the quality and cost effectiveness of care in America. Click here for a summary of delivery and payment reform elements that were included in the legislation.

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March 2010
Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology

Health IT has tremendous potential to transform how health care is delivered. Congress sought to realize this potential in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH), a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), by including $34 billion in financial incentives for Medicare and Medicaid providers (e.g., hospitals and health care professionals) for their meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHRs). For providers, the financial implications will extend far beyond the $34 billion in incentives, with Medicare providers facing what will become substantial payment reductions if they are not meaningful users of health IT after 2015. The congressional intent is that providers, to receive these incentives and avoid future payment reductions, will have to do more than simply install EHRs in their practices; they will have to meaningfully use them to improve patient care. The concept of meaningful use is strongly supported by consumers and purchasers because it supports critical goals, which include:

• Increasing care coordination and fostering better doctor-patient communication
  
• Reducing medical errors and improving patient safety
  
• Supporting delivery of evidence-based care
  
• Reducing disparities by recording demographic information
  
• Improving quality of care, while fostering more cost-effective delivery
  
• Advancing payment reform (by supplying needed data on provider performance)
  
• Providing patients with their own, portable health information

The Disclosure Project has developed a portfolio of advocacy and education tools to support consumers' and purchasers' work in this area, including:

• Comments submitted to CMS on March 15 in response to a notice of proposed rulemaking, supported by 21 consumer, labor union, and employer organizations, applauding the direction of CMS' meaningful use requirements as well as providing suggestions for how the requirements could be further strengthened.
  
• Press release reflecting leading consumer, labor, and employer organizations strong support of CMS' proposed standards for meaningful use. We believe these standards set important benchmarks for truly using health information technology to improve care. At the same time they provide for a flexible staged approach for the adoption of meaningful use.
  
• Issue Brief: "Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology: What It Is and Why It Matters to Patients and Purchasers."
  
• Webinar slides from the webinar held on March 9 to provide consumers and purchasers with advocacy messages to promote support for the proposed definition. A recording of the meaningful use webinar can be found here.
  
• Comments submitted in June, 2009, to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for HIT in response to their draft definition of meaningful use.

In addition, the Disclosure Project has been working closely with the consumer coalition Consumer Partnership for e-Health (CPeH), which also submitted comments to CMS that were supported by a great deal of consumer organizations, many of whom are Disclosure Project members.