The industry groups that gathered at the White House last month and pledged to bring down health costs by $2 trillion in the next decade followed up with a 28-page document to the White House Monday. The letter addresses things like better management of chronic diseases, more administrative simplicity, appropriate utilization of medical services, quality improvement and medical error reduction, expansion of health information technology. In other words, the industry gave a real world vote of approval to what a lot of what academic researchers and health policy experts have been saying about the ways to bring down the costs and improve care.

However, the document (from the American  Medical Association, PhRMA, the American Hospital Association, the SIEU, America's Health Insurance Plans, and AdvaMed, which is the main medical device trade group) was a vague on whether there were any teeth in the pledges to do this, that and the other thing, or on what would happen if these initiatives fall short (or fall apart).

Individually and together, our organizations have developed  initiatives that will help move the nation toward achieving the Administration's goal and we intend to keep working. Our organizations will now pursue these initiatives which, together,will help transform the U.S. health care system.

So while this is certainly a step in the right direction, giving more oomph to the cost-down, quality-up message, it remains to be seen exactly who is committed to doing what when, and what legislative steps, regulation, timetables or mandates the industry will or will not embrace. Guess we'll find out later this month when the rubber starts to hit the legislative road...