Coalitions role in encouraging the use of health care data

[Guest Jerry99]

One of the opportunities and challenges that coalitions have today is encourage its members to learn how to use health care data as a management tool in decision-making. Comparative hospital and physician specific data are now readily available to coalitions and its members. The challenge is getting the members to learn how to apply this new information to business decisions involving health care services. How does an employer know if they are getting value for their dollars ? What about an employers PPO agreement ? It has great discounts, but could comparative data show an employer that they are actually spending more an/or sacrificing quality by using their current PPO Hospital. These are just some of the issues associated with the need for employers to expand their knowledge and use of health care data. To that end, coalitions need to serve as an important facilitator in this process.

Jerry Custer

Heartland Healthcare Coalition