ENZI: BETTER HEALTH CARE VALUE MEANS HIGHER QUALITY, LOWER COST

Washington, D.C. – Congress can improve health care quality while reducing costs forall Americans by focusing on efforts to get better value for every dollar spent on health care,U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor andPensions (HELP) Committee, said today.

“We need to take steps to get better value for every dollar Americans spend on healthcare,” Enzi said. “Comprehensive health care reform must be about more than expandingcoverage – it must include provisions to improve quality while making health care moreaffordable.”

Enzi said that his comprehensive health care reform bill, Ten Steps to Transform HealthCare in America, included provisions that would not only reduce costs, but improve quality. Promoting widespread use of cutting edge health information technology (health IT), patientcenteredmedical justice reform, life-saving preventive services, and community health centersfor rural and underserved populations would help patients get better, more affordable care, he said.

“We need to provide patients and doctors with reliable, up-to-date medical information so they can make the right decisions about their own care,” Enzi said. “We can solve some of themost serious challenges facing health care today – like medical errors, inconsistent quality, andrising costs – through effective, widespread use of innovative health information technologies. Health IT will save lives and money.”

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