Sen. Morse Puts All the Data in One Basket

Tuesday, April 27 2010

Legislation will Create Unified Database for Health Care Information

DENVER— HB 1330 sponsored by Senate Majority Leader John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) has passed second reading today in the state Senate. This bill titled, The Health Care Cost Transparency Act, will improve the state healthcare system by creating a unified database of information for all healthcare transactions in Colorado.

Currently, health care data is hard to find and even harder to interpret.  HB 1330 will charge the Center for Improving Value in Health Care with establishing one data collection system to gather and unify health care information in the state.  This all payer data-base would include eligibility information as well as claims data pertaining to medical, dental or pharmacy visits. 

“This bill represents a common sense solution to improve our health care system”, said Senator Morse. “By creating one information database we can give consumers the knowledge to make responsible choices about their health care and provide physicians with accurate and easily interpreted patient information.”

This database will be a starting point in making the system more transparent and cost effective. Having all the information in one place will allow consumers, businesses and policy makers to make “apples to apples” comparisons to fairly assess the current state of the health care system.  It will allow consumers to make better buying decisions and will allow policy makers to ferret out inefficiencies.

This bill is another key step in Senate Democrats larger efforts to make health care in Colorado affordable, accessible, and responsive to the needs of citizens.