Origins and Elaboration of the National Health Accounts, 1926-2006

The National Health Statistics Group (NHSG) has managed to keep the national health accounts (NHA) apolitical and highly respected. NHSG strategies have included the careful acquisition and presentation of statistics relating to health costs and payers; the use of scholarly journals to disseminate ideas to other government offices and, beyond them, to industry, labor, the professions, and universities; and the promotion of cooperation with related U.S., statistical agencies, provider groups, contractors, and international organizations. Responding to an increasingly complex system of third-party payers in the U.S. health system and controversies over methods, the NHA has continually evolved to meet the demands of health care decisionmakers. Historically, these dialogues have forced health accountants to refine their methods to ensure that their portrayal of spending and financing trends presents information that can inform the decisionmaking process in a non-partisan way.