Health Reform Dialogue Issues Recommendations - Health Blog - WSJ

The WSJ reports the publication of a "Health Reform Dialogue" issued a set of recommendations today aimed at governing the debate over restructuring health care.  The WSJ observed it was generally consistent with the "direction the Democrats are heading."  Reviewing the short report, I find the following notable:

The ultimate public policy goal is to increase value for America’s health care consumers and the system as a whole, that is, the highest quality of care delivered in the most efficient manner possible: significantly improving treatment of chronic disease; researching the effectiveness of comparative treatments; paying for quality care, not quantity of care; providing relief for patients, clinicians, and providers caught up in the web of medical liability processes; encouraging public reporting of information that clarifies the performance of individual clinicians and providers; creating a robust health information technology infrastructure; and beginning to significantly transform the health care delivery system through some much-needed payment reforms.

They then discuss some of the efforts that can be undertaken to do this including advocating clinical effectiveness research studies, quality measures and strong HIT infrastructure support by the federal government.

As the WSJ blog notes, while this shows some common agreement and coordination among an impressive cadre of provider, business, hospital, insurance and other interest groups, the agreement ends at, and punts on some of the more difficult policy questions, such as insurance mandates.   I found the language subject to wide interpretation even on the areas of agreement.

In any event, these groups will all have a significant and important seat at the table when the scope, provisions and cost of healthcare reform is debated.

Health Reform Dialogue Issues Recommendations - Health Blog - WSJ.