The subject of health care and the trend in providing consumers with information regarding quality of care dominated a recent SHRM conference which I attended in D.C. The topic is in the news this week with the announcement that the Department of Health & Human Services has launched a new web site–called “Hospital Compare”–devoted to providing information on how well hospitals are caring for their adult patients with certain medical conditions. You can access a Wall Street Journal article here (subscription only) discussing the web site as well as the Kaisernetwork.org‘s summary of the development here.
Excerpt from the WSJ article:
Consumers, employers and insurance companies have been calling for public disclosure of hospital-quality information, especially clinical data that are already collected by government agencies and regulatory bodies. The Bush administration is pushing for changes in health coverage, such as health savings accounts, that would require patients to make more decisions about when and where to go for care and how much to pay for it.But making wise choices is difficult without good information: Consumers today can get more information about buying a car or a TV set than they can about hospitals or doctors. . .
Also, along those same lines, there’s another article worth reading from the Wall Street Journal this week: “Doctors Criticize Health Insurer Over Provider-Ratings Program.” Excerpt from that article:
In 13 states, Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s UnitedHealthcare has analyzed two years’ of claims data to designate physicians who provide higher-quality, lower-cost care, according to the program’s criteria. In the areas where the UnitedHealth Performance Designation Program is in place, on average about 25% of doctors in the company’s network are on the list, the company says.Three large companies — General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group unit and United Parcel Service Inc. — have adjusted some of their health benefits so that some employees have incentives, such as lower co-payments, to go to these doctors.