Leavitt promotes 'four cornerstones' initiative in Wisconsin

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Wednesday in a speech to Milwaukee-area business and health system leaders promoted the Bush administration's Value-Driven Health Care Initiative, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/7).

The Value-Driven Health Care Initiative -- or the "four cornerstones" plan, first outlined by President Bush in an August 2006 executive order -- calls for employers to prioritize four criteria when they purchase health insurance: interoperable health care information technology; reporting of quality-of-care measures; reporting of health care price information; and incentives for high-quality, cost-effective care (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/20/06).

At his speech on Wednesday, Leavitt said that the "only thing that can change health care ... is a marketplace," which the U.S. health care system lacks because there is insufficient quality and price information.

Leavitt said, "We are not very good at measuring quality" in our health care system, adding, "We are going to get better at it. But we are not very good at it now."

Leavitt noted that health care costs as a percentage of the Gross National Product have risen from 4% in 1951 to 16% currently.

"This is not a sustainable pattern, and everybody is feeling it," Leavitt said. Leavitt also named the Business Health Care Group and the Alliance, an employer-owned cooperative, as community leaders in the Value-Driven Health Care Initiative (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/7).