Federal Health Care Initiative Receives Pharmacy Support

An executive order establishing a “health quality roadmap” is receiving support from pharmacy professionals. Issued Monday by President Trump, the executive order is designed to put patients first in health care, which includes improving pricing transparency.¹

“To make fully informed decisions about their health care, patients must know the price and quality of a good or service in advance,” Trump said in the executive order.¹ “With the predominant role that third-party payers and government programs play in the American health care system, however, patients often lack both access to useful price and quality information and the incentives to find low-cost, high-quality care.”

In a prepared statement, Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) Chief Executive Officer Laura Cranston, RPh, said the organization applauds the initiatives outlined in “Executive Order on Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First.”²

“As we move toward a more fully-integrated, value-based health care system that prioritizes the outcomes patients want, it is important to align quality measurement across the care continuum. An aligned approach to evaluating the quality of care patients receive can incentivize collaboration among care providers, make quality reporting more efficient and less burdensome, and give patients clear and consistent tools for evaluating their care options,” said Cranston.²

In the executive order, Trump said the federal government aims to eliminate barriers to price and quality transparency, increase the availability of meaningful price and quality information for patients, enhance patients’ control over health care resources, including tax-preferred medical accounts, and protect patients from surprise medical bills.¹

In an effort to better inform patients about prices, the executive order promotes several potential changes:¹

• Require hospitals to publicly post standard charge information in an easy-to-understand way that will meaningfully inform patients’ decision making and allow them to compare prices across facilities.
• Require health care providers, health insurance issuers, and self-insured group health plans to provide or facilitate access to information about anticipated out-of-pocket costs for items and services to patients before they receive care.
• Report on ways in which the federal government and the private sector are impeding health care price and quality transparency for patients, and provide recommendations for eliminating these impediments, while also promoting competition.

According to Cranston, PQA has more than 250 members across health care, and the nonprofit organization is committed to working with federal agencies and stakeholders across health care in an effort to strengthen quality measurement for the benefit of patients in the United States.²

“We know the importance and challenge of aligning quality measurement across diverse patient populations and care settings. From children to veterans to the elderly, our federal health programs care for the diversity of American life. The unique needs of these populations and systems of care must be accounted for in all efforts to align quality measurement,” said Cranston.²

“PQA also is encouraged by the Executive Order’s call to increase access to deidentified claims data, which can strengthen the development and implementation of important and meaningful quality measures,” Cranston added.²

References

• Trump D. Executive Orders: Executive Order on Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First. White House website. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-improving-price-quality-transparency-american-healthcare-put-patients-first/. Published June 24, 2019. Accessed June 27, 2019.
• Pharmacy Quality Alliance. Laura Cranston, RPh, Chief Executive Officer, Pharmacy Quality Alliance, on the Executive Order for Establishing a Health Quality Roadmap. PQA. [email] Created June 25, 2019. Accessed June 27, 2019.