WASHINGTON, DC (July 27, 2017): The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) – a coalition of employers, insurers, brokers, agents, patient groups, and physician organizations – responded today to the release of the Network for Excellency in Health Innovation’s (NEHI) Transparency in Health Care report.
The study found that helping consumers make better-informed health care decisions can lead to higher quality of care, greater patient satisfaction, and more effective use of the nation’s health care resources. The report offers nine specific policy solutions for greater transparency in health care, and relied on CAHC’s work on consumer selection of health plans, particularly on public exchanges like HealthCare.gov.
Since 2014, the Council for Affordable Health Coverage has placed a dedicated focus on health care transparency solutions through its Clear Choices campaign, whose mission closely aligns with the findings of the NEHI study. The campaign is best known for its annual scorecard of health exchange websites.
CAHC President Joel White, who participated in the expert panel used to inform the report’s findings, released the following statement:
“The lack of health care transparency costs consumers up to $170 billion every year in bad outcomes and poor choices. We commend NEHI for their dedicated work unearthing the challenges we face in reaching meaningful health care transparency, and the cost to consumers of failing to do so,” said CAHC President Joel White. “This study confirms in tangible ways what CAHC and our Clear Choices Campaign have said before: that consumers are too often left to make health care decisions without adequate information, a reality that can be hazardous to their health and their pocketbooks. We fully support NEHI in its call for improved consumer tools and more robust public education so that patients have the resources necessary to make the best health care decisions possible and the know-how to leverage those tools most effectively. CAHC looks forward to our continued work with NEHI and other stakeholders across the health care spectrum to build more transparent, accountable, and consumer-friendly health care markets.”
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Background:
The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) is a broad-based alliance with a primary focus: bringing down the cost of health care for all Americans. CAHC promotes policies that lower health costs through increased competition, informed consumers and more choices to help promote access to affordable coverage.