Ann & Natalie's Compliance Corner
Welcome back to Ann & Natalie's Compliance Corner! Natalie Herron recently joined Ann as the new Integrity Associate in Compliance. Natalie has her J.D. from Northeastern University. Prior to coming to athenahealth, Natalie worked with a PR company to help clients develop philanthropic public relations programs. Welcome, Natalie!
This month, we bring you a summary of the new executive order promoting healthcare price and quality transparency. Missed last month's column on new regulations that encourage physician adoption of electronic health records (EHR) and electronic prescribing systems? Click here.
On August 22, President George W. Bush signed an executive order directing federal agencies that administer or sponsor specific healthcare programs to increase price and quality transparency by January 1, 2007.
Bush emphasized the need to provide consumers with easy-to-use information about the quality and price of their healthcare in order to enable consumers to make better informed choices among doctors and hospitals, support providers that deliver high-quality care, and prevent unnecessary healthcare costs.
"People deserve to know what their healthcare costs, how good it is, and the choices available to them," said HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt. "The President's action today is a major step forward in giving consumers easy-to-use information about the quality and price of their healthcare. This is fundamental to achieving a healthcare system that delivers good value."
Healthcare practices may see a few changes as a result of this executive order.
- The President's order mandates the provision of information about the quality of care delivered by doctors and hospitals and prices paid to providers. This means that practices may see increased support from the Bush administration in realizing their efforts to create reliable and comprehensive health quality and price information.
- The collaboration between health care providers and public and private payers will make local information on the quality of cost of care available to most Americans. So practices may benefit from an unprecedented amount of information on the quality and price of services delivered by each healthcare provider.
- Finally, the order requires agencies to offer incentives, such as providing financial rewards to doctors who adopt recommended practices, based on value and quality of care.
One day before Bush signed this order, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it is making available on its website Medicare payment data for sixty-one procedures performed in ambulatory surgical centers. Medicare intends to begin posting information about payment rates to physicians as early as this fall.
The President said that he hopes the Federal action will be followed by similar commitments in the private sector and in state and local governments.
For more information, please see the August 22, 2006 DHHS Press Release here.
Disclaimer: The content of Compliance Corner is for general informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as compliance guidance or advice. Consult your compliance advisor or attorney for compliance or legal advice on specific issues related to your practice or compliance program.
