On Feb. 25, 2011, Shannon Brownlee, the Acting Director of the Health Policy Program, hosted a panel discussion regarding the implications of the recently released Dartmouth Atlas paper Improving Patient Decision-Making in Health Care: A 2011 Dartmouth Atlas Report Highlighting Minnesota. As the lead author of the report, Shannon underscored the need for patients facing elective procedures to be fully informed of their medical options as well as the distinct risks and benefits that come with those options.

How patients are treated and cared for in their last few months of life has important implications for both health care spending and the quality of patients' lives -- and deaths. The highly politicized debate over end-of-life care leading up to passage of the Affordable Care Act framed the issue in black-and-white terms, as a choice between cure versus care, hospital versus hospice.

When Californians walk into doctors' offices, hospitals, and clinics in the years to come, how will their experiences be changed by the passage of federal health reform? How can we work together to put this legislation into effect in ways that improve the quality of the care we receive? That build on our state's successful models of high-value care?

Our nation has an obligation to make sure everyone has quality, affordable health coverage. However, coverage will not be sustainable unless we refocus our delivery system on patients, improve quality, and increase efficiency.

Transforming our delivery system is good public policy and a necessary component of fiscal responsibility. Yet, we will not slow the rate of health care cost growth until we create stronger incentives for providers - the people who deliver care - to focus on quality and efficiency.