Award Description:

The Foundation For Accountability (FACCT), was a national non-profit
organization working to improve health care for Americans by advocating
for an accountable and accessible system where consumers are partners
in their care and help shape the delivery of care. The Foundation was
created in 1995 to  bring a fresh emphasis on health outcomes and
patient experience to the emerging quality measurement field and to
advocate for broader public reporting of quality information at all
levels.<br>
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The Ellwood Award was presented annually to the organization or person
whose accomplishments had best demonstrated vision, courage, impact
and long-term commitment to shaping and advancing accountability in
health care. The awards honored the leadership of Paul Ellwood, MD in his
efforts to help America build an accountable consumer-centered health
care system. Dr. Ellwood, founder of Interstudy and the Jackson Hole
Group, brought health care, public policy and business leaders
together for nearly three decades to share ideas and strategies for
improving health care.<br>

Project Description:
Including the public in healthcare priority-setting faces significant obstacles: apathy, complex information requirements, and emotional barriers to making tradeoffs between competing needs for resources. CHAT (Choosing Healthplans All Together) is a group exercise designed to overcome these obstacles and measure laypersons' preferences and values for health insurance features within the constraint of limited resources. Participants distribute limited resources amongst a wide range of options: degrees of care management, breadth of coverage, restrictions on access and choice, and inclusion/exclusion of some services. Repeated cycles of the game incorporate role-playing to foster an appreciation for the consequences of choices and the perspectives of others. The entire group eventually designs a single healthplan. Group decision making is expertly facilitated to be inclusive, open, deliberative and cooperative.