[medinformatics] Washinton State Docs Graded on Quality

[Medical Informatics News]

Regence BlueShield, Washington State’s second largest health insurer plans to post quality
reports of individual physicians on the Internet by mid-year. Report cards for hospitals and medical groups are fairly
common now, but rating specific providers is something of a rarity.


According to an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal, the reports will include quality scores based
on 33 measures, tracking medical services such as diabetes testing, mammography, immunizations and screenings for
cervical cancer. While patients might welcome access to such information, many physicians reportedly don’t—and some
object to the methods used for the ratings:


Michelle Matin, at Seattle Primary
Physicians, cautioned that in examining physician quality, insurers must take care that their results are
statistically significant. And she said carriers need to educate the public about what the scores mean.

Erick Laine, CEO of The Madrona Medical Group in Bellingham, said that
doctors want insurers to use “a legitimate standard” when profiling them. “Physicians would gain confidence in the
methodology if the results from one profile matched the results from the profile of another plan,” he said. “But often
that is not the case, and it breeds suspicion that these profiles are being used more as marketing tools rather than
legitimate means to make informed decisions.”

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