It’s time to compare doctors on quality performance and make it public.  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a “Physician Compare” website similar to “Hospital Compare” site already in use for hospitals and other facility providers. By 2011, the website will post information on physicians who successfully participate in Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (formerly PQRI). On Wednesday, CMS held a five-hour-long town hall with physicians, hospital representatives, employers and others to figure out what exactly this site should include. HealthLeaders Media reports some of the questions raised include:

• "Will a physicians' charges be part of what's viewed? Or whether they ever make housecalls? Do they enroll patients in clinical trials, accept money from pharmaceutical companies, or spend a good portion of their day in the classroom?
• Can the patients talk with them by e-mail? Do they have an electronic medical record system in their practice? Who covers for them when they go on vacation?
• How many patients must a physician care for in order to qualify for inclusion, so the data has enough power to be right, and over how many months or years?
• Should quality and patient satisfaction measures be included for non-Medicare/Medicaid patients, the privately insured or self-pay patients the doctor may treat? And should those scores be shown separately, so patients can see if the doctor treats all patients the same?
• Should the website show how often the doctor updates his continuing medical education, and in which specialties he's overdue?"

AMA Prez James Rohack, MD, notes in that article their concerns about the site: “We want to have reliable information that a patient can use if they are trying to select a physician or facility to get elective care... But our concern is that individual doctor level data right now is not read[y] for prime time, especially in complex situations. The attribution of who's really responsible for that care is not worked out."

With just 59 days left to get the site together, I predict it will be lame. They need the help of the profession -- us for CV care issues -- to do this right. Good luck and God Bless.

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