Empower Consumers and Providers

Too often, consumers and providers do not have the information and tools they need to make informed decisions about quality and cost when it comes to healthcare. Enhanced transparency of information on quality and cost of healthcare services and greater use of health information technology are key to achieving this goal.

For example, electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) is a tool that can improve healthcare quality by helping to reduce errors due to drug-to-drug interactions and allergic reactions. In addition, it can provide embedded clinical decision support tools to assist providers in making the best decisions. This is significant because an estimated 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events occur each year in the United States (Institute of Medicine, 2007).

What the Blues are Doing

What the Government Should Do