State Launches "My Health Care Options Week" in Worcester

State partners with Fallon Community Health Plan and Worcester businesses to highlight consumer-friendly website comparing health care quality and costs

The Commonwealth's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Chair of the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council announced the launch of “My Health Care Options Week” (Jan. 30 – Feb. 6, 2009) at Fallon Community Health Plan in Worcester. The Secretary was joined by Council Vice Chair, Joseph Lawler (left) of the Gaudreau Group and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and Eric Shultz (right), CEO of Fallon Community Health Plan, to announce the launch and demonstrate the website (www.mass.gov/MyHealthCareOptions). Mandated as part of Massachusetts' historic health care reform initiative, the site displays comparative quality and cost information from hospitals across the state.

Worcester, MA — Members of the state’s Health Care Quality and Cost Council (HCQCC) and representatives from Fallon Community Health Plan joined with advocates, consumers, providers, and area businesses today in Worcester to launch “My Health Care Options Week” and discuss the value of the state’s new website featuring consumer-friendly, comparative cost and quality information about procedures performed at hospitals and outpatient facilities.

Today’s event marked the beginning of a statewide “My Health Care Options Week,” which runs from January 30 until February 6. Consumers and providers are encouraged to visit the new interactive website (www.mass.gov/myhealthcareoptions), designed to promote transparency in the health care industry. For example, a patient considering knee replacement surgery, angioplasty or a mammogram can use the new site to compare cost and quality measures for those and other procedures at various local hospitals.

Mandated as part of Massachusetts' historic health care reform initiative, the website was developed to help control costs and improve the quality of care available to patients and is the first of its kind in the nation. The new resource is part of ongoing, multipronged efforts to control rising health care costs and ensure that residents of Massachusetts can get the best care available, particularly as the Patrick Administration and its legislative partners continue to move forward in implementing health care reform. More than 442,000 people have enrolled in health insurance programs since 2006, and Massachusetts now has the lowest rate of uninsurance in the country.

"Transparency is vitally important in both controlling costs and improving quality in the health care industry," said Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, who also chairs the Health Care Quality and Cost Council. "Our hope is that even more residents of the Commonwealth will visit the state’s new quality and cost website and encourage friends, family, and colleagues to do the same, empowering consumers to spend their health care dollars more efficiently and motivate providers to improve quality and decrease their costs."

"Massachusetts health plans are committed to improving care and increasing transparency," said Fallon Community Health Plan President and Chief Executive Officer Eric Shultz. "We strongly support the launch of this website and ‘My Health Care Options Week’ as an important step in the state's efforts to help consumers make more informed health care decisions. We look forward to continuing our work with the Council and other health care stakeholders to ensure that the website provides accurate information that helps people better understand the true costs of care, and allows providers, payers and the public to compare measures and focus on specific areas for improvement."

The development of the cost and quality website compliments a broad range of cost and quality initiatives underway both within the Council and across state government. Last spring, the Council issued a number of recommendations for improving quality of care and containing health care costs in Massachusetts. In addition, as part of the Patrick Administration's HealthyMass initiative, nine state agencies are working together to decrease administrative burdens on providers; adopt strategies to improve quality of care; focus on decreasing the impacts of chronic disease; and align payments to support primary care and community hospitals.

About the Health Care Quality and Cost Council

The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council was established by Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 to establish statewide goals for improving health care quality, containing health care costs, and reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care and to demonstrate progress toward achieving those goals. The Council is also charged with disseminating, through a consumer-friendly website and other media, comparative health care cost, quality, and related information for consumers, health care providers, health plans, employers, policy-makers, and the general public.

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