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New communities join ranks of Chartered Value Exchanges

By Bernie Monegain , Editor, Healthcare IT News

Eleven more communities will join the 14 designated by the government as Chartered Value Exchanges - healthcare collaborations focused on improved care and making quality and price information widely available.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt named the communities Wednesday to what he called "a growing national movement."

"Local public-private collaboration is essential to achieving a health system based on quality and value," Leavitt said. "The most effective strategy for achieving long-term improvement is the development of national measures and standards and the implementation of local solutions to utilize them."

The new Chartered Value Exchanges are:

  • Aligning Forces for Quality, based in York, Pa.;
  • the California Chartered Value Exchange, in San Francisco;
  • the Colorado Chartered Value Exchange in Denver;
  • eHealth Connecticut, Inc., of Middletown, Conn.;
  • the Greater Louisville Value Exchange Partnership in Louisville, Ky.;
  • the Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati and HealthBridge, in Cincinnati, Ohio;
  • the Kansas City Quality Improvement Consortium, in Kansas City, Mo.;
  • Michigan Health Information Alliance, in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.;
  • the Nevada Partnership for Value-driven Health Care, in Las Vegas,;
  • the Quality Health First program, managed by the Indiana Health Information Exchange of Indianapolis, Ind.;
  • and the Virginia Health Care Alliance of Glen Allen, Va.

As Chartered Value Exchanges, the communities will have access to information from Medicare that gauges the quality of care that physicians provide to patients. These performance measurement results may be combined with similar private-sector data to produce a more comprehensive guide to the quality of care in these communities.

"With this distinction we are doing two things," Leavitt said. "We are recognizing the work these communities have already done to improve care. And we are giving them new tools to advance their efforts to implement - at the local level - a value-driven healthcare market."

Communities interested in becoming Chartered Value Exchanges may apply between Sept. 15 and Oct. 30, 2008.

Is your community one of the designated CVEs, or perhaps thinking of applying? Tell us how that status might help improve care in your community. Send your comments to Editor Bernie Monegain at bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com.