Five functions of the Federal Health Board

by STR

Tom Daschle’s health care book – Part III

Five functions of the Federal Health Board

1. set rules for the expanded Federal Employee Health Benefits Program

2. promote “high value” medical care, i.e., recommending coverage of drugs and procedures backed by solid evidence, and ranking services and therapies

(how we gather this evidence for new drugs and procedures is not exactly clear)

3. align incentives with high-quality care

4. increase transparency

5. play a role in nationalizing (his words) our health-care infrastructure (although he then proceeds to discuss resource allocation rather than infrastructure)

Solid proposal or cliche’ fest? Discuss.

Pages 171-178 (Critical: What We Can do About the Health-Care Crisis – Daschle, Greenberger, Lambrew, Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2008 )