Making the changes necessary to improve quality, provide more efficient care, and lower costs is a shared responsibility. “It is really critically important that the consumers and purchasers have a credible voice in those discussions.”— Michael Painter, MD, RWJF Senior Program Officer

Dates of Project: May 2006

Field of Work: Performance Measurement

The Work: The United States is moving from a health care payment system in which doctors and hospitals are paid for the quantity of services they provide to a system that emphasizes the value of those services. But payment reform will not become a reality unless consumers and purchasers can compare costs and quality among providers. Hospitals, doctors, and health plans have historically dominated the process of developing and validating performance measures to make that possible. Consumers and health care purchasers have had little voice in the deliberations.

The Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project seeks to change that. It is a coalition of more than 50 leading employer, consumer, and labor organizations that recruits, trains, and supports consumers and purchasers to serve on public and private decisionmaking bodies involved with performance measures. The project also advocates for high-value measures designed to assess outcomes, rather than process, and educates policy-makers, health industry stakeholders, and the general public.