How Report Cards On Physicians, Physician Groups, And Hospitals Can Have Greater Impact On Consumer Choices

Abstract

Public report cards with quality and cost information on physicians, physician groups, and hospital providers have proliferated in recent years. However, many of these report cards are difficult for consumers to interpret and have had little impact on the provider choices consumers are making. To gain a more focused understanding of why these reports cards have not been more successful and what improvements could be made, we interviewed experts and surveyed registrants at the March 2011 AHRQ National Summit on Public Reporting for Consumers in Health Care. We found broad agreement that public reporting has been disconnected from consumer decisions about providers because of weaknesses in report card content, design, and accessibility. Policy makers have an opportunity to change the landscape of public reporting by taking advantage of advances in measurement, data collection, and information technology to deliver a more consumercentered report card. Overcoming the constraint of limited public funding, and achieving the acceptance of providers, is critical to realizing future success. I n recent years, efforts to improve the quality and affordability of health care in the United States and abroad increasingly have looked to public performance reporting to guide consumer choice and stimulate delivery system improvement. Such public reporting, however, is hardly a new phenomenon. More than two decades ago, public agencies in New York and Pennsylvania began reporting cardiac surgical outcomes by surgeon and hospital. Other early initiatives to evaluate provider performance were launched by payer groups such as the Pacific Business Group on Health and the Buyers Health Care Action Group in Minnesota. Since then, many private purchasers, the federal government, and multistakeholder community groups have developed and disseminated their own report cards with quality and cost information on physicians, physician groups, and hospital providers at the community, regional, and state levels.The evolution of, and experience with, consumer-directed public report cards is well-documented.1-3 Publication of these report cards aims to encourage consumers to assess and include provider quality information in their health care decisions and to foster quality improvement among providers. However, research suggests that although consumers report that they value quality information about their providers, consumer-directed reports on quality have been difficult to understand and use and have had minimal impact on consumer choices of providers. 4-7Challenges associated with measuring performance at the individual physician level (for example, inadequate sample sizes and difficulty adjusting for severity of patients' medical conditions) 8 602Health Affairs March 2012 31:3 Improving Public ReportingDownloaded from HealthAffairs.org on September 01, 2018.Copyright Project HOPE-The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved. Reuse permissions at HealthAffairs.org.today's report cards will n...

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