Should Doctors Get Public Report Cards?
Health policy advocates often tout "paying for quality," and giving patients more information. As you can imagine, however, it is difficult to measure "quality", and what information would be useful for patients. Such is the topic of this WSJ story about public report cards for Minnesota doctors. According to Jacob Goldstein, a nonprofit called Minnesota HealthScores has been measuring clinics and physician groups for a while, focusing on the care of diabetes patients.
The organization reports what percentage of a clinic's diabetic patients meet targets for health measures such as blood pressure, LDL cholesterol and blood sugar. Under state law, all physician groups will have to participate starting next year. The report cards have prompted some groups to step up their efforts; one clinic added a care coordinator who calls patients every few months to make sure they're on track with testing and treatment. But some docs say the reports penalize groups that treat sicker people, and don't take into account the complexities of treating individual patients.
Click here to read the full article. What do you think about the concept of publishing public report cards for doctors? Would this be helpful to you?