Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR)

The government should collect and release more claims information from managed care plans, the nation’s largest long-term care provider association stated in a recent letter to Senate leaders.

Managed care is “rapidly gaining popularity,” but a lack of transparency has made it hard to determine cost and quality benefits, according to the Aug. 12 letter from the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living.

The managed care data could be released in public use files, similar to Medicare fee-for-service claims data, AHCA proposed. No matter how it is reported, more robust comparisons to the traditional fee-for-service model are needed, the association emphasized, noting that research so far has shown managed care “results are mixed.”

AHCA sent the letter to Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who had requested stakeholder input on making healthcare data more accessible and useful.