Colorado's governor is considering a bill that would require the state's health plans to disclose the data and methods they use to create physician tiers. In so doing, the state would follow the lead of New York, which has taken aggressive steps to regulate physician rating programs, including proposed legislation [1] and a model standard set by the state attorney general.

With tiering programs, health plans rank physicians based on their preferred quality ratings, then offer members discounts for those who only see the highest-rated tier of physicians. In addition to demanding transparency on what they're doing, the Colorado bill would set standards for how data is used, requiring, for example, that plans utilize risk-adjusted data, base grades and ratings at least partly on nationally-recognized quality standards.

To learn more about the bill:
- read this AMNews article [2]

Related Articles:
NY considers physician-ranking legislation [3]
Physician ratings are here to stay [4]
Errors force BCBS of TN to postpone doctor ratings [5]
Restaurant ratings firm Zagat, WellPoint rate doctors [6]