(Kauffman Foundation: Kansas City, MO) -- Cost trends in U.S. health care consistently increase at about 2.5 percentage points faster than the general rate of inflation—clearly an unsustainable rate. To address what it called "America’s most urgent public policy problem," the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation released a report that focuses on improving the cost-benefit balance in U.S. health care through open access to medical data.

The report, “Valuing Health Care: Improving Productivity and Quality,” is based on the recommendations of 31 experts from related fields whom the Kauffman Foundation convened to reframe thinking around the question, “How can the productivity and value of American health care be increased, in both the short-term and long-term?”

While acknowledging that there’s no shortage of reports and recommendations for health care reform, the task force took a unique approach to tackling health care value and productivity challenges.

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