On Tuesday, HHS launched the Health System Measurement Project to allow policymakers, health care professionals and the public to track health care trends across the country, CMIO reports (Byers, CMIO, 5/15).
The website provides information on:
- Access to care;
- Costs;
- Disease prevention; and
- Health IT (Daly, Modern Healthcare, 5/15).
In addition, users can view health indicators sorted by various population characteristics, including:
- Age;
- Gender;
- Geography;
- Income level; and
- Insurance coverage (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 5/15).
The site allows users to compare trends at the state and regional levels. Data are drawn from surveys by HHS, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and other organizations.
The site states that "one important purpose of the project is to track the consequences of implementation" of the 2010 federal health reform law. However, much of the available comparison data only cover up to 2009 or 2010, according to Modern Healthcare (Modern Healthcare, 5/15).