It's becoming a stampede. Two more health plans operating in New York state have joined CIGNA [1], Aetna [2] and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield [3] in agreeing to follow physician ratings guidelines set by the state's Attorney General, bringing the total to five over just a few months. Group Health Inc. and United Healthcare will now follow a model established by state AG Andrew Cuomo for ranking physicians, one which, among other things, requires health plans to disclose how they develop the rankings and how much weight they give physician costs in their system.

Like the other plans, Group Health and United Healthcare have also agreed to adhere to nationally-accepted quality ranking standards, make sure ratings are adjusted for risk and that sample sizes are reasonable, and hire a "ratings examiner" (essentially, an auditor) to make sure their numbers are kosher.

To learn more about the announcement:
- read this piece [4] from The Business Review (of Albany)

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