When you see the doctor or have to be admitted to a hospital, you expect the best possible care – unfortunately, you don’t always receive it.

Americans only receive the best possible care for their condition about half the time. And, too often, the quality of care we receive is based upon where we happen to live – not uniform quality standards.

Health reform must ensure that every patient receives the right care at the right time, all of the time.

WellPoint is intensely focused on this quality challenge and we’re developing answers that can help guide
successful health reform.

• HealthCore – a WellPoint company – is working with leading health innovators to perform clinical outcome and comparative effectiveness studies, learning the best treatments to keep people healthier.
• Our Quality Hospital Insights Program is assessing hospital performance to provide members in our affiliated health plans the information they need to make better health care choices.
• WellPoint’s pay-for-performance programs are aligning health care spending with evidence-based treatments to promote healthy outcomes.

High-quality care is an achievable goal. Every day, we’re making progress on innovative ideas to help ensure that no one ever receives anything other than the best possible health care treatment.

Congress can make a difference with delivery system reforms to link payments to quality outcomes and with comparative effectiveness research driven by sound science and independent judgment. It’s time for health reform that puts quality in the forefront.