Right to Know Project Mission
The individual’s Right to Know the true price and quality of healthcare is an important precondition to improving the performance of the American health system. Whenever the American economy has provided consumers with knowledge of a good’s price and quality, the market has responded by delivering goods of higher quality and lower cost. If we wish the same from our health care system – higher quality outcomes at lower cost – then we must not only restore to individuals the right to make decisions regarding their own care, but also empower them to make wise decisions by equipping them with price and quality information.
A remarkably high 93% of Americans agree that they want this information about their health services, and yet they only rarely receive it because of the distortions and confusion introduced by a third-party payer system. The Right to Know project’s mission is to see that individuals receive even more accurate, relevant, and accessible information on price and quality as they make health decisions.
Project Goals
- To drive better health outcomes at lower cost through transparency of information so individuals can make better decisions and providers will be incentivized to improve performance.
- To ensure that individuals can obtain information about price and quality of healthcare goods and services that enable them to make intelligent, informed decisions regarding care for themselves or those that depend on them.
- To ensure that this information is provided in a way that is easy to understand but is detailed enough for those who want more.
- To ensure that providing such information does not expose healthcare providers to additional liability concerns, but is viewed as a way to restore the individual-provider-relationship and reward superior providers for excellent work.
Project Priorities
1. Public access to substantial but easy-to-understand information regarding quality and cost of specified procedures at hospitals, long term care facilities and outpatient facilities, as well as information about adoption of technologies and practices proven to increase patient safety. In conjunction with the Long Term Living project, a primary emphasis will be on improving data to help guide the selection of long term care facilities.
2. Public access to information regarding individual physician cost and outcomes, as well as information about use of electronic medical records and e-prescribing. Goals include development of a Physician Report Card and state-wide websites where this information is posted.
3. In conjunction with the Accelerating Health Innovation Project, the aggregation of depersonalized data into a long-term outcomes database, the goal being both the development of a massive research data base and public access to information. This should include gathering of data that already exists in the private and public sector, as well as the ongoing collection of future data.
4. Health Justice Transformation to help remove disincentives to sharing information.
5. Creation of a movement that motivates individuals and their doctors to use appropriate online tools and sites to learn about best practices, as well as quality and cost of various treatment options and providers.
