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ST. PAUL, Minnesota — The Minnesota Council of Health
Plans today launched a statewide, multi-year initiative to
give consumers better tools to understand and evaluate managed
care.
EQUIP (the acronym stands for ethics, quality, information
and prevention) has two goals: educate Minnesotans on the
challenges facing their health care system and engage them
in making decisions on how the system can be improved.
Over the next year, EQUIP will involve consumers, employers
and policy makers in determining the community's values and
expectations for health care ethics and decision-making. And,
by early next year, EQUIP will publish a report on how the
quality of health care currently is measured and what the
data show about Minnesota's plans. EQUIP also will make quality
standards more useful to individuals and employers as they
evaluate health plans. Other EQUIP efforts will involve improving
consumer information and strengthening prevention efforts.
The Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics and the Minnesota
Institute of Public Health will partner with the council to
address the ethics and prevention components of EQUIP. The
Healthcare Education and Research Foundation will offer technical
advice and serve as a reviewer for the quality report. Consumer
organizations will be tapped to develop the best tools and
strategies to disseminate desired information to consumers.
"Minnesota's health plans have done a great job of
using managed care to improve quality and expand prevention,
while keeping health care affordable," said Michael Scandrett,
executive director, Minnesota Council of Health Plans. "However,
we haven't done as good a job of explaining how managed care
works. Consequently, surveys show people like their own health
plan but have concerns about the future.
"The critics of managed care have become increasingly
vocal; while some criticism is warranted, much of it is based
in misunderstanding and misinformation. Let's eliminate the
misinformation so we can focus on addressing the legitimate
concerns. That's what EQUIP is all about."
The council will begin this month to move toward developing
ethics standards. The council will bring together groups of
consumers, legislators and regulators to examine issues involved
in making care and treatment decisions. Real-life scenarios
will be used to move the groups through the process of balancing
the demand for services with cost restraints. The guidance
of the groups, along with broader community advice, will result
in the council's setting standards for health care ethics
and decision-making.
The quality initiative also is currently underway. With technical
advice from Cathy Borbas, executive director of HERF, the
council has already begun work on a draft quality report.
"We want to identify better ways in which quality can
be measured and information be made more useful for consumers
and employers when making health care decisions," said
Dr. Craig Christianson, medical director, UCare Minnesota
and co-chair of the Medical Issues Committee of the council.
Scandrett also pointed out that health plans are only one
contributor to determining what services and treatments are
covered. EQUIP will bring together employers who select coverage
options, employees who negotiate benefits and legislators
who mandate benefits.
"EQUIP will provide the platform to address the societal
issues of assuring the highest quality of care while maintaining
access and affordability throughout Minnesota," said
Scandrett. The Minnesota Council of Health Plans is an association
of 11 nonprofit Minnesota-based health care organizations
that provide health coverage to more than 2 million Minnesotans.
Established in 1985, The Minnesota Council of Health Plans
is a trade association representing Minnesota's nonprofit
HMOs, health plans and coordinated care systems.
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