Federal health officials will join academics, employers and industry officials in Washington next week to review the status of transparency efforts around healthcare costs and quality.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-sponsored summit will feature Kevin Counihan, chief executive of HealthCare.gov; Dr. Karen DeSalvo, HHS acting assistant secretary for health; and Dr. Patrick Conway, the CMS' chief medical officer and head of the CMS Innovation Center. Former Senate majority leaders Bill Frist and Tom Daschle also are set to speak.
The conference, to be held March 16-18, will feature panels on purchasers' perspectives on transparency, including Sally Welborn, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of global benefits; Leah Binder, CEO of the Leapfrog Group; and Suzanne Delbanco, CEO of the Catalyst for Payment Reform.
“Progress has accelerated in the past couple of years, but we're not close,” Binder said. Information is lacking for many reasons. “But none of those reasons are going to be enough” as consumers face higher out-of-pocket costs under their high-deductible health plans, she said.
Other sessions will address the Open Payments database, which discloses payments by medical manufacturers to physicians and teaching hospitals. Dr. Lewis Sandy, UnitedHealth Group's senior vice president of clinical advancement, will join panelists to review best practices in cost transparency.
Peter Leibold, chief advocacy officer for Ascension Health, will join officials from the American Hospital Association and other healthcare groups to talk about communicating financial information to patients.
