About time.

snip~
WASHINGTON — Picking a specialist for a delicate medical procedure like a heart bypass could soon get easier.

The government announced Monday that Medicare will finally allow its extensive claims database to be used by employers, insurance companies and consumer groups to produce report cards on local doctors and hospitals.

By analyzing masses of billing records, experts can glean such critical information as how often a doctor has performed a particular procedure and get a general sense of problems such as preventable complications.

Compiled in an easily understood format and released to the public, medical report cards could become a powerful tool for promoting quality care and reducing waste.

"This is a giant step forward in making our health care system more transparent," said Marilyn Tavenner, Medicare's acting administrator. Consumers could start seeing performance reports by late 2012, said spokesman Brian Cook.

While doctors will be individually identifiable through the Medicare files, personal data on their patients will remain confidential.


more @
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20111205/US.Medical.Report.Cards/

So we will rate doctors poorly if they run too many tests? I guess the cardiologists who make life or death decisions without runming stress tests will be rated as better?

I'm not saying waste doesn't exist, but is this means of analysis useful in making qualitative assessments about medical care.

I already know more and more specialists who are dropping medicare patients over medicare's increasing reluctance to pay for tests. And this isn't gonna help. Oncologists, cardiologists, ENTs and other specialists need to run tests to properly diagnose their patients. This can easily become penny wise and pound foolish because the costs associated with an incorrect diagnosis can cost q heck of a lot more than a couple of tests.