The HCQCC met Wednesday. The launch of their quality and cost website is now delayed until October. Preliminary testing of the website, including consumer testing, will be taking place soon. The delay is due mainly to the need to clean the data to ensure quality and validity. Secretary Bigby noted that it will be important to know and understand all barriers in moving forward so that the next round of data extraction will be a smoother and quicker process while still ensuring the quality of the displayed data.
The Council also announced that it will be working with the Brookings Institution to develop best practices for health plans to collect patient race and ethnicity data.
Tthe Council approved a motion to develop a “roadmap to cost containment” during this fiscal year. In this vein, the Council stated that it will:
- Begin with an assessment and analysis of baseline expenditures and likely trendline
- Consider a wide rage of cost containment interventions, assessing the impact of these interventions on cost trends
- Make use of all resource available to the Council
- Make comprehensive cost containment recommendations
- Develop broadest possible understanding and support for these recommendations
More time will be spent in further developing the roadmap. A number of Council members stated that attaining the Council’s goal of reducing the rate of increase in health care expenditures will rely on the commitment and support of all stakeholders, including political leadership. We agree, and we look forward to seeing the Council take the lead in this effort.
Su Joung Yoon
