Employers Need Cost, Quality Data to Curb Health-Care Spending

Guaranteeing employers the right to get health-care cost and quality information will be a major theme at a Sept. 18 congressional hearing.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold its fourth hearing on reducing health-care costs. This hearing will focus on how transparency of costs and quality can help reduce costs.

Reducing high health-care costs is a major goal for policy makers. It is also an important issue for consumers, who increasingly have to pay greater out-of-pocket costs through high-deductible health plans, as well as through Affordable Care Act plans that require high deductibles ...