Finally, Accurate Report Cards on Doctors' Safety and Quality of Care
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Knowledge, they say, is power. It’s also a necessary tool for crafting cost-effective medical practices and protecting patient safety.
Medicare has an enormous claims database from which valuable knowledge can be mined. Finally, within about one year, employers, insurance companies and consumer groups will be able to unearth its information to produce “report cards” on doctors and hospitals.
My patient safety blog has championed this access to information, and the subject also figures mightily in “The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care and Avoiding the Worst,” my book about patient advocacy and medical mistakes.
As described in an Associated Press story, researching a health-care provider’s history in the Medicare database has not been possible before, thanks to a decades-old court decision. Releasing such information, the ruling read, violates the privacy of doctors. The medical establishment was vigorous and vocal in not wanting the people who pay for and receive its ministrations to know how its members rate.
Congress and the executive branch disagreed. For once, both parties were unified on this issue, and federal law has been revised to authorize access to the Medicare database.
What does this mean to the average patient? Suppose you need a knee replacement. Wouldn’t it be nice to compare potential surgeons by how many such procedures they’ve performed, if there were preventable complications and how many?
Experts who analyze Medicare’s billing records glean critical information that not only promotes quality care, it reduces cost and waste by promoting practitioners who are skilled and responsive. The delivery of health care is more efficient and outcomes improve when complications, readmissions and legal adventures are kept to a minimum.
"This is a giant step forward in making our health care system more transparent," said Marilyn Tavenner, Medicare's acting administrator of the newly accessible Medicare mother lode.
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