The Department of Health and Human Services last week released data on prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures paid under Medicare. (CMS data, HHS news release).  This is a significant moment in the decades-long road that Business Roundtable CEOs have been traveling to press for greater transparency in our health care system. 

Our CEOs know better-informed consumers can better manage their own health-care.  Business Roundtable CEOs started the Leapfrog Group in 2000, to improve health care quality by reducing medical errors.  Solid data were a key part of the effort.  In 2006, Business Roundtable CEOs pressed the Bush Administration on transparency of health information and the New York Times editorialized in favor of the BRT's efforts. ("Evaluating Doctors With Medicare Data") See also this 2011 BRT Bottom Line.  During the debate over health care reform, Business Roundtable advocated for the release of Medicare claims data, a provision later included in the Affordable Care Act.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should be applauded for moving this issue forward, and we encourage the Department to take the next step – providing cost and quality data about all providers and services, empowering consumers to make decisions based on good information.  Congress has unleashed the Medicare data – now we need to give every American data about the cost and quality of the care they will be provided.

When consumers evaluate care, they look not only at the price, but also whether the care is based on appropriate quality measures.  Our country is spending enough on health care – we now need to ensure it is the right care at the right time and at the right price.  Engaging consumers in this effort is one of the central tenets of slowing or reducing the rate of growth in health-care spending.