Disclosure of Physician Information

This paper reviews the disclosure of physician information, their report card. What does the consumer really want to know about the health care plans and the doctors that are involved in the plan? “Information technology has made it possible to assemble and adjust performance data so that physicians, hospitals, or managed care plans, can be compared on a wide variety of parameters of importance to consumers” (Sultz & Young, 2010 pg. 174). The answer to this and many other questions will be reflected in this paper.

People should be able to get information on their physician to be able to make an educated decision on which doctor that they would like to go to. Information disclosure about each physician will help in the process of deciding which doctor can meant the individuals personal needs. One way physician’s information can be disclosed is by use of a physician report card. “The report card has also introduced an incentive that encourages the providers to improve on their performance” (Sultz & Young, 2010 pg. 174). “Report cards allow the public to see the information regarding the comparative performance of the physicians and the hospitals” (Sultz &Young, 2010 pg. 174).

First we will address the question, are the physician report cards fair and balanced? It is in my opinion that the report card is not a fair nor is it a balanced thing. The information that is provided needs to be understandable, and relevant to the decision making process. Unless one has a Ph.D., it is hard to understand what the report is trying to say. The reports that I have been reading seems to be leaning towards the negative side of the physician and not a lot on the positive side. Some of the difficulties that customers may be face with when trying to gain useful information is; “relying only on medical or administrative records as sources of information, and their define “quality” in terms of a relatively narrow range of technical processes and physiological outcomes” (Christianson,...