HHS Designates 11 Communities Working to Improve Quality and Value

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today welcomed 11 more communitycollaborations to a growing national movement to build a health caresystem where consumers, providers and payers make decisions based on thevalue and quality of care. These communities will join 14 others as Chartered Value Exchanges(CVEs) -- local collaborations of health care providers, employers,insurers, and consumers working jointly to improve care and make qualityand price information widely available. The new Chartered Value Exchanges are as follows: o Aligning Forces for Quality, York, Pa. o California Chartered Value Exchange, San Francisco, Calif. o The Colorado Chartered Value Exchange, Denver, Colo. o eHealth Connecticut, Inc., Middletown, Conn. o Greater Louisville Value Exchange Partnership, Louisville, Ky. o Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati andHealthBridge, Cincinnati, Ohio o Kansas City Quality Improvement Consortium, Kansas City, Mo. o Michigan Health Information Alliance, Mt. Pleasant, Mich. o Nevada Partnership for Value-driven Health Care, Las Vegas, Nev. o Quality Health First program, Managed by the Indiana HealthInformation Exchange, Indianapolis, Ind. o Virginia Health Care Alliance, Glen Allen, Va. As Chartered Value Exchanges, these communities will have access toinformation from Medicare that gauges the quality of care thatphysicians provide to patients. These performance measurement resultsmay be combined with similar private-sector data to produce a morecomprehensive guide to the quality of care in these communities.