Disclose the methods used to determine costs and outcomes. There is a great deal of opportunity to find new ways to organize care, to bring people together, and to put new tools in people's hands to provide better care. We need more information circulating at more levels and across this new system, so that the ingenuity characteristic of this country can provide better combinations for our members and our patients. Information must be in terms the consumer understands. All too often in health care we measure input instead of outcomes.
Input is easier to measure and more precise, but it is the right answer to the wrong question.
Competition among health plans and physicians is currently based on price, on skimming risks, and on denying care. It needs to be based on competing against disease. Standardized, comparative, and universal outcomes measures will provide a natural experiment for improving care. In 1988, only 2 percent of clinical trails run by pharmaceutical companies contained a pharmacoeconomic element. Today that number is more than 30 percent and is rising like a rocket.