Business Roundtable Applauds Executive Order to In
Washington, DC, August 24, 2006--Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers whose companies represent more than 10 million employees and provide health care coverage for more than 34 million Americans, issued a statement supporting President Bush’s signing of an Executive Order to increase transparency and improve quality and efficiency in our nation’s health care system.
The Roundtable statement:
“Improving the transparency of health care cost and quality information and implementing a national health information technology infrastructure are vital to improving our health care system and strengthening our economy, and are top priorities for Business Roundtable,” said John J. Castellani, president of Business Roundtable.
“We applaud the President’s Executive Order, which embraces the principles of cost and quality transparency, effective health information technology standards, and incentives for consumers and providers. We urge all Roundtable CEOs to include these goals in their health care contracts and many have already committed to do so.
“Today’s Executive Order is an important step toward making cost and quality data available to consumers so that they can make more informed health care decisions. In addition, we now have assurances that the federal government will release 100 percent of the patient-protected information contained in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) claims database, including cost and quality information. As CMS is the largest purchaser of health care in the country, releasing this information is a vital next step to ensuring an accurate look at cost and quality.
