Last week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt announced a formal plan to carry out his Transparency Initiative. Beginning this summer, HHS will charter local "value exchanges," collaborating groups of providers, unions, employers, insurers and other stakeholders who will focus on quality improvement and public reporting of the performance of health care providers in their local communities. The value exchanges will be connected through a national network to allow for the sharing of best practices. HHS believes this effort will promote national coordination of health care quality monitoring while maintaining local control, and that the program will provide more information to consumers on health-care quality and costs. For more information, please visit http://www.hhs.gov/transparency.