Dedicated groups can work together to improve the system

Poor coordination among health care services in the US has led to inefficiencies and wasted resources. The current system focuses on health care transactions (with a transaction representing the cost incurred when a patient receives care from a physician, hospital, or other service provider). Every transaction—good or bad—is reimbursed the same, regardless of the quality of care or outcome.

AstraZeneca recognizes the need for greater coordination and a stronger focus on the quality of the care provided, and we realize that we have a responsibility to help fulfill that need. As part of this effort, we are committed members of the following programs:

• The Leapfrog Group
• Bridges to Excellence™
• Healthcare Leadership Council

The Leapfrog Group

Through the Leapfrog Group, AstraZeneca and more than 160 other public and private organizations are working to identify breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. This voluntary program is aimed at alerting America’s health care industry that big leaps in health care safety and quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded.

The Leapfrog Group and its members work to:

• Reduce preventable medical mistakes and improve the quality and affordability of health care
• Reward doctors and hospitals for improving the quality, safety, and affordability of health care
• Encourage public reporting of health care quality and outcomes so that consumers and purchasing organizations can make more-informed health care choices
• Help consumers reap the benefits of making smart health care decisions

The Business Round Table, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Leapfrog Group members, and others support and fund the Leapfrog Group.

Bridges to Excellence™

AstraZeneca is an active member of a forward-thinking coalition of employers that have created an employee health care benefit through a program called Bridges to Excellence™. Bridges to Excellence (BTE) is an initiative led by a coalition of large employers to recognize and reward quality physician care and improved technology systems.

The BTE coalition is made up of physicians, health plans, quality experts, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and several of the nation’s largest employers. AstraZeneca has joined ranks with GE, Procter and Gamble, Verizon, UPS, Raytheon, Ford, and Humana in this quality-driven initiative. BTE’s three components—Diabetes Care Link (DCL), Cardiac Care Link (CCL), and Physician Office Link (POL)—are targeted to identify and reward health care providers who demonstrate that they deliver safe, timely, effective, efficient, and patient-centered care when treating patients with diabetes or heart disease or when managing patient care using technology.

Healthcare Leadership Council

AstraZeneca is an active member of the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC). Members of the HLC—hospitals, health plans, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, biotech firms, health product distributors, pharmacies, and medical teaching colleges—envision a quality-driven health care system built on the strengths of the private sector.

Providing access to health care for the uninsured, implementation of Medicare modernization, and medical liability reform are important HLC priorities. Additionally, the group works to promote patient safety, patient privacy, and the health care workforce shortage.

The HLC shares its vision for quality health care with Congress, the White House, the media, the research community, and the public through communications and education programs. And, in the belief that health care is essentially local, the HLC builds grassroots coalitions at the community level to pursue its goals for America’s patients.