INTERVIEW: Leading The Way: A Conversation With HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt

• Published in: Health Affairs Vol. 27; no. Supplement 2; pp. w52 - w59
• Main Author: Leavitt, Mike
• Format: Journal Article Transcript
• Language: English
• Published: United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.01.2008
• Subjects: Adoption of innovations; Cooperative Behavior; Governors; Health; Health care policy; Health information; Health maintenance organizations; Health services; HMOs; Human services; Information Systems; Information technology; Leadership; Liability insurance; Managers; Medical technology; Medicare; Modernization; Private Sector; Public policy; Public Sector; Reimbursement; Systems Integration; United States; United States Dept. of Health and Human Services - organization & administration; United States; United States > US; Illinois; Utah
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.1.w52

In January 2005, Michael O. Leavitt was sworn in as the twentieth secretary of health and human services (HHS). The former three-term governor of Utah reveals how his management of HHS reflects his experiences managing private- and public-sector organizations. The discussion explores his perspective that using health information technology (IT) to modernize health care and create value must be done through collaboration, not government mandate. Secretary Leavitt says that new approaches based on linking reimbursement with results must be adopted incrementally, as more is learned about carrying out such approaches. But he also says that it is time to begin linking reimbursement with health IT adoption.