THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
``Save the council'' (editorial, Feb. 14) contains misinformation about HB 1307.
First, the bill is intended to make more information available to consumers and purchasers of health care, not less, as your editorial implied. Indeed, it is the result of a study by the Joint Commission on Health Care and is supported by organizations that represent the vast majority of purchasers. We agree that ``now, more than ever, information regarding which institutions perform well and how they compare is essential.'' This bill is intended to do just that!
HB 1307 moves responsibility for collecting and reporting useful data to Virginia Health Information Inc. VHI is a private/public partnership which is governed by a board of directors with business, consumer, insurance, health care and state government representatives (including the AARP). These are the stakeholders who will be using this data.
Currently, both VHI and the state Cost Review Council are charged with providing health-care data information to consumers. The Joint Commission's study revealed that some of the reports produced by the Cost Review Council were not considered to be valuable. Therefore, the bill discontinues those reports and transfers responsibility for the useful projects to VHI and eliminates the Cost Review Council.
The legislation also directs VHI to determine data projects that should be undertaken and the data elements providers must submit to implement them. This first action plan, to be submitted for approval to the governor and the General Assembly, includes recommendations for measuring quality of care given by all providers - hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and health plans.
We share your concern about this issue and are pleased to make you aware that HB 1307 is part of the good news of the 1996 session. It's a good bill which passed the House of Delegates by a 100-0 vote and which deserves similar support in the Virginia Senate.
SANDRA D. BOWEN
Senior vice president
Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Richmond, Feb. 19, 1996 by CNB