Launch of "Buying Value" Project

Today, the Buying Value project was launched by a group of national and regional business and labor health care purchasers, including the National Business Coalition on Health, the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, and the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative.  The initiative seeks to take advantage of the major payment reforms coming from the federal government to align with private purchasers in an effort to promote value-based purchasing of health care.

NBCH has been a member of the Buying Value project team since its inception.  The project was originally referred to as Partnership for Patients in an attempt to align with the CMS Partnership for Patients project aimed at improving patient safety in hospitals.  However, since work on the project has evolved into a broader set of goals and objectives, partner organizations agreed that it should have its own identity, hence Buying Value.  

A website has been launched that contains some useful background documents on value-based purchasing, and will eventually have the capability to produce reports on health plan activities related to value-based purchasing.  In the future, NBCH will be working with its member coalitions and other Buying Value partners to encourage health plan participation in a Request for Information (RFI) to gather more information on health plans' value-based purchasing and patient safety initiatives.  

Please contact Colleen Bruce for additional information.