Leavitt Urges Transparency
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Thursday during a meeting with the board of the North Carolina Medical Society touted President Bush's recent executive order on price transparency. The order requires federal health agencies and other departments that administer or support government health insurance programs to collect and share with consumers information about health care cost and quality.
Leavitt said consumers deserve better information about the cost and quality of medical care, but he noted it might take years before consumers can compare quality and costs regularly. "The problem today is that nobody knows. People have no way of knowing if they're getting good quality or value," he said, adding, "It's going to take time, but it's the right thing to do" (Fisher, Raleigh News & Observer, 9/29).