THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

WASHINGTON, D.C.  20201

Michael O. Leavitt

 Health care in America today presents unprecedented opportunities, but at the same time enormous challenges. 

With health information technology and the electronic health record, we have the prospect of much more patient-centered health care.  And with dramatic advances in basic science including the sequencing of the human genome, we are opening the door to “personalized health care,” enabling more effective care for each person.

Yet at the same time, we know that we are not yet consistently delivering the high quality of care that we could and should deliver.  We know that we need to spend our health care dollars much more effectively, so that more Americans can get health coverage.  And we know that the very foundations of our health care system need to be strengthened, especially to make better use of the information that is the heart of successful care. 

Efforts like America’s Health Rankings^TM are part of the solution.  By showing where progress is being made and where improvement is needed, we can help bring all stakeholders together in understanding the goals and the tools for achieving them. 

This same kind of information sharing and comparison is important for individual patients and health care providers, as well.  If we are to accelerate our progress toward better health, as well as improve cost-effectiveness, we need informed consumers and providers who have the ability to choose good quality, high-value health care services.  If our health care system is to work well, we need to measure the quality of care delivered by each provider, make those quality measurements public, and enable consumers to compare quality and price as they make their health care choices. 

• Today, government and the private sector are working together to lay the foundations for a “value-driven” health care system:

• We are working with providers and other stakeholders to develop reliable measures and provide public reporting of quality performance for every health care provider.

• We are making public the prices paid for health care services, as well as defining “episodes of care” to make meaningful comparison possible.

• We are developing health information technology standards to ensure that health information will be both secure and interoperable.

• And we are developing approaches that reward consumers and providers when high quality, cost effective care is provided.

All of us need to work together to improve quality and value in our health care system.  We need a strong information base, and we need common standards to make quality and cost comparison possible.  And the health care system itself needs to be structured in a way that rewards quality and generates value with every choice of treatment and every health care transaction.

Building on that base, we can achieve the high health care goals that Americans deserve.