THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603070019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
Regarding ``Save the council'' (editorial, Feb. 14): The elimination of the Virginia Health Services Cost Review Council is one of the most positive steps that the government is taking. The council's functions have become obsolete. The Cost Review Council is an anachronism in the world of modern health care.
The days of collecting data on occupancy rates, in-patient and out-patient charges, average cost per discharge, charity care, etc., are gone. This is archaic information in the new world of managed care.
This bill has many key provisions that have gone unmentioned, including identifying and producing useful health-care cost and quality data. It merges the methodology for measuring efficiency and productivity into the activities of a private, nonprofit health-data organization. In essence, this bill will improve public accountability of health-care providers by producing consumer-friendly reports. Health-care data will be available in a timely fashion for the first time.
The elimination of the Virginia Health Services Cost Review Council is not new. Providers have been struggling for years to improve the data-collection efforts of Virginia. Finally, all of the players including hospitals, nursing homes and the business community have agreed that this is the most-reasonable and efficient approach to data collection.
SANDRA LEVIN, president
Virginia Association of
Nonprofit Homes for the Aging
Glen Allen, Feb. 14, 1996 by CNB