Common physician performance metrics

The federal government and the industry trade group representing most health insurers in the US (America's Health Insurance Plans) released an initial set of measures to track physician performance. Historically, physicians have generally been averse to having their performance publicly assessed (as one might expect practitioners of any industry to be). Some physicians have even claimed that it's impossible to measure quality. As insurance companies rolled out a variety of pay-for-performance programs in the previous decade, physicians rightfully pointed out that the programs from different insurers conflicted with each other, and that such programs also frequently lacked the very transparency that they were supposed to promote.

Therefore, this moment could be significant if the movement lasts and the idea of a common scorecard persists. Rather than simply arguing about whether quality can be measured, the discussion would instead focus on how to measure quality. Up until recently, physicians have not had to pay too much attention to quality metrics for financial reasons (e.g. the previous pay-for-performance programs generally accounted for less than 10% of a physicians' incomes). Now, however, if more insurance companies were to adopt a common rubric, more of physician reimbursement could be tied to performance, which might lead to better-performing doctors being paid more.