What do we really know about VBID? Quality of the evidence and ethical considerations for health plan sponsors.

In March 2009, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) convened a meeting of “policymakers, researchers, and producers of health care data” to “begin developing a strategy to optimize the availability of information and data for enactment and implementation of health care reform.” The needs described by participants were as expected: timely information about “the likely concrete effects of unique, specific policy proposals,” provided with an eye to “the specific levers available to policymakers,” developed with a “clear and transparent” methodology, and assessing “the impact on the public sector and consumer.” It is telling that the need for “solid data” was emphasized by “veterans of past health care reform efforts,” who also observed that current data needs “are much broader.”