Business
Medicare, private plans grade Calif. doctors
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 2, 2007
For the first time, the federal government will partner with the private sector to grade doctors.
Medicare is partnering with Blue Cross, Blue Shield and PacifiCare/United Healthcare in California to develop a physician performance tracking system. Medicare and the three plans will compile data to grade the performance of doctors. Report cards will be available to doctors by midyear and will eventually be released to the public.
Other quality report cards exist in California, but this will be the first partnering of the federal government and the private sector to track physician performance. This is the first of six pilot sites in the nation for which Medicare is partnering.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/04/02/bibf0402.htm.
