Leah Binder Highlights the Type of Information That Consumers, Purchasers Would Find Useful

There needs to be more transparency in the healthcare industry because even though there is currently information available on health plans and hospitals, it's often not information that is useful to consumers or purchasers, explained Leah Binder, MA, MGA, president and chief executive officer of The Leapfrog Group.

Transcript (slightly modified)

When it comes to straddlign the line between value-based purchasing and consumerism, how do we achieve transparency and consumer trust?

Well I think first and foremost we have to have more transparency in general. Right now we have a lot of information that is available about how hospitals or health plans are doing, but when you really drill down on that information it's not really all that useful. Not all that useful to consumers and in many cases not all that useful to purchasers. I think we're going to have to have a new level of candor in what's available to people.

For example: most people if they're going in for surgery, they want to know how good is the surgeon? How many has he or she done? What kind of outcomes does this surgeon get? And are there others with better outcomes? Those kinds of questions right now cannot be answered with the data that is publicly available.

I think for consumers that is going to be critical and for purchasers. Purchasers are increasingly interested as they look at value-based purchasing in tiering their networks based on quality and really looking closely at what are considered very controversial questions. Those questions are going to have to be answered.