Bush To Sign Executive Order on Cost, Quality Data
President Bush is scheduled to sign an executive order on Tuesday that would require HHS, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management to collect more information about the quality and cost of health care they provide and share that data with each other and with beneficiaries, the AP/Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. The order would direct the agencies to work with the private sector and other government agencies to develop and enact programs to measure quality of care.
The agencies would work to identify practices that promote high-quality care. In addition, the order would call for the agencies to use interoperable electronic health records "where available," according to the AP/Clarion-Ledger.
The order would require the agencies to compile information on the prices they pay for common services available to their members.
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said agencies must have the new programs in operation by Jan. 1, 2007.
Bush is expected to sign the order in Minnesota, where he will give a speech on price transparency to an audience of health care providers and also attend a campaign fundraiser (Freking, AP/Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 8/22).