in 2007, calpers sponsor of legislation to require our health plans to submit data to calpers. ashley was passed and signed by governor schwarzenegger and of limited as article 6, section 2285 4.5 in the public employees hospital and medical care act. we did get full claims data from all of our plans. in

in 2007, calpers sponsor of legislation to require our health plans to submit data to calpers. ashley was passed and signed by governor schwarzenegger and of limited as

we also have the chief office of health office administration for calpers. the focus of this last set of presentations are options for action to protect payers, consumers, the public interest from the actual and potential negative impacts of increasing costs, specifically, a market consolidation. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, members of the committee. i am grateful for this chance to talk to you, and to hillary, for making it easy for me to do. i have been listening with a great deal of interest and pleasure, realizing you have been told a great many things that i will not have to repeat. so i will focus on a very wide but singular aspect of the question of system performance and the role of view, as legislators, that will involve. there are some major issues. we just talked about some of them but it repairs being -- bears repeating. this is a market that is almost worthless as quality assurance or price protector. it is so shrouded in secrecy, and in many cases, blatant dishonesty on the part of some of the parties, that it is very difficult, if not

>> as an employer, you could -- and actually calpers has done this -- you could tell york insurer that you want them to choose only a subset of the available providers in the city, so if there is high cost and good quality elsewhere, -- there is high cost in one area and good quality elsewhere, you might construct what is referred to as an arrow network, which would exclude some of the higher cost providers. supervisor campos: the first bullet that you had up there, it says insurance company say its dominant position give it the upper hand in contract negotiations. how does that work in terms of the relationship between the hospital, the insurance company, and the price? >> ok, so, you have two phenomena. one is controlling 44% of the beds in the city still that you cannot live without it. second, you cannot negotiate separately with the three or four hospitals underneath that umbrella. it is all or none, as dictated by then. -- by them. i think that explains most of it, right? supervisor campos: i see. >> this is just a note that a very noted economist did a study released last year.

calpers has been doing this for a year its insurer, blue shield hmo, and in the northern part of san francisco, with 41,000 members, and already they have seen $51 million in savings. just by having things work more like a system. i assume this relates partly to the question about health care information technology. if you can make in interoperable, you can make it better. i think you have an opportunity to do this, and i believe you may be to some planning for that. finally, we just need more transparency. as you were suggesting, mr. chairman, we need to know more about quality and in terms of what we want to know. is there harm in going to its hospital -- this hospital because it's infection rates are too high? are people having trouble after their hip surgery? i am sorry you cannot read this, but if you live in pennsylvania, you can go to a web site sponsored by the state. for hip surgery in this case, you can see the outcomes. over to the right, that is how much it costs at each of those facilities. we cannot have that data today but we desperately need them. happy to answer any

. >> wall street is reporting that calpers is expected to lose millions in bankruptcy court due on to lehman brothers. john paulson is expected to make nearly $726 million, while calpers is due to lose $68 million and san mateo county would lose $115 million on the same bonds they bought before lehman failed. >> bank of america wants to text you but the message woent may not be friendly. >> bloomberg reporter joins us live from the stock exchange. >> good morning to you. bank of america has a new plan because of customer complaints about nasty overdraft fees. they are texting some customers when they don't have enough money to cover the purchase. they will approve the purchase if you agree to pay $35 fee for the transaction. microsoft a little bit lower and word that $8.5 --8.5 billion to by skype. it's the largest ago wi silgs ever. >>> stock prices this morning, we are positive. right out of gate. we have the dow, s$p and nasdaq trading higher and bloomberg trading up, as well. i-hop is heading to the frozen food aisle the new line is french toast and omelettes and griddle and sausa