but in my opinion, probably the most important and unique contribution that nihcm has made has been an indirect one, one resulting from the various annual media awards that it puts out. it awards a prize for radio and tv journalism, one for general audience print media and one for the trade publications. and these awards, i think, have had a big impact stimulating more and better coverage of health issues throughout the nation and it's raised the prestige of the journalists and investigative reporters who cover health. the awards also have caused editors and publishers to channel more resources into covering health topics and for that i think all of us who are interested in this area should be grateful. enough patting you on the back. >> oh, that was so nice. [laughter] >> you can pay me afterwards. [laughter] >> let me turn to the assignment that i was given when i was first invited to@@@@@@Å well, unfortunately, i didn't have time to put the finish touches on my secret painless plan that raises $1.5 trillion without cutting provider payments or increasing taxes or imposing burdens on

and for your very kind words about nihcm's anniversary. i really appreciate that. next we'll hear from cleve killingsworth ceo of blue cross blue shield of massachusetts. cleve is a very important leader of healthcare reform in massachusetts. he's also participating very much in the day-to-day way in that healthcare reform as well. he's been an outspoken advocate for quite a bit of time now on payment reform and he is doing some very interesting things with his own company. joining him will be andrew dreyfuss who is executive vice president of healthcare services for blue cross blue shield of massachusetts. >> good morning. it's good to be here. we don't often get a chance to present to this particular collection of folks, so this is pretty exciting. we are grateful to have this opportunity. as nancy just said i'm copresenting with andrew dreyfuss, my partner in crime back in massachusetts. his team leads the development and implementation of our alternative quality contract. what i'd like to do is just take a couple of minutes to try to create a context in which t

the last decade and-and-a-half, nihcm has been an influential voice on health policy and has done this in a number of ways, first through the issue briefs, called expert voices, which top analysts summarize succinctly the state of knowledge on a particular issue, and, then, add their unique perspective, and for those of you who haven't accessed one of those, i think there is probably some out on the table, i would. i have a little stack of them, somewhere in my office, that i refer to quite frequently. it is also -- had influence through the reports, that it generates from its research projects. on a wide range of topics, from childhood oty

it should be identified for nihcm, but the points are pretty basic. what i want to emphasize is that as part of bipartisan health care reform there's a lot of emphasis on getting better information through using health it to support decision-making, through developing better evidence on what works for particular patients and what kinds of policy work best for decision-making. those are important policy steps that in themselves are not going to be enough. they are tools, they are enablers but they are not going to be enough. to all of this that you have been hearing about today on reforming payments to providers and moving towards paying for what we really want, better health, lower costs, as opposed to fee-for-service is also extremely important. third key element is consumer and involving patients through benefit reforms. we've talked some about that as well. i've heard about that in the last presentation. you can think a lot of the reforms are being considered on coverage fitting into this goal as well. insurance market reforms are making sure every

it should be identified in for nihcm but the point is pretty basic. what i want to emphasize is that as part of bipartisan health care reform there is an emphasis on getting better information for using health i.t. to developing better evidence on what works for a particular patients of what kind of policies work best for decision making. those are important policy steps but in themselves are not going to be enough. they are enablers and not going to be enough and so all of this emphasis hearing today on reforming payments to providers and moving toward paying for what we really want, better health, lower-cost as opposed to fee-for-service is also extremely important. a third key element is consumers and involving patients to been a reform and we talked about that as well. i've heard about that in the last presentation and you can think of the reforms being considered on coverage sitting in the school as well. insurance market reforms make sure everyone has access to a range of choices and competition among health plans based on each patient better an

and for your very kind words about nihcm's anniversary. i really appreciate that. next we'll hear from cleve killingsworth ceo of blue cross blue shield of massachusetts. cleve is a very important leader of healthcare reform in massachusetts. he's also participating very much in the day-to-day way in that healthcare reform as well. he's been an outspoken advocate for quite a bit of time now on payment reform and he is doing some very interesting things with his own company. joining him will be andrew dreyfuss who is executive vice president of healthcare services for blue cross blue shield of massachusetts. >> good morning. it's good to be ñ avoidable medical errors and they could be by abuse or omission of services and a strong statement about medical errors generally in the system. it was the first time that the magnitude of the problem was characterized for the nation in such actionable terms. this report came from a prestigious organization, the institute of medicine, which has lots of physician credibility all around the world. and so about five years ago, ki