NEW Consumer-Purchaser Alliance

The Consumer-Purchaser Alliance has announced a stronger focus on transforming the way health care is purchased and paid for in the United States, building on its historic work on transparency and public reporting, as part of its continued pursuit of higher-quality, more affordable health care.

The Consumer-Purchaser Alliance, formerly known as the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, is changing its name to reflect its newly expanded objectives to:

• Promote value-based purchasing and provider payment models that reward value rather than volume;
• Focus on reducing costs and promoting wider use of measures related to the cost of care; and
• Act as a catalyst on key issues that promote patient-centered and high-value care.

“As the Consumer-Purchaser Alliance, our mission remains the same: to help strengthen the voice of consumers and health care purchasers in the quest for more value and transparency in health care. The focus of our work, however, will shift to getting better outcomes,” said Bill Kramer, co-chair of the Consumer-Purchaser Alliance and executive director for national health policy at the Pacific Business Group on Health.

The Consumer-Purchaser Alliance began as a unique partnership between the National Partnership for Women & Families and the Pacific Business Group on Health, working with consumers, employers, and unions toward a common goal to ensure access to publicly reported information on health care.

“Going forward, the focus of our work will include the use of performance measures for provider payment, value-based purchasing, and consumer decisions,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Woman & Families. “The new name, Consumer-Purchaser Alliance, retains the core idea that we represent consumers and purchasers, while recognizing that the scope of our work has broadened.”

The Consumer-Purchaser Alliance continues to receive strong support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Alliance’s grant was recently renewed to move forward with new initiatives, building on the success from recent years.