Partners weighs data commercialization project

HealthGrades launched its hospital price comparison service this week to so-so reviews, just ahead a similar service planned by CMS. Hospitals remain uncomfortable with the idea and it remains to be seen how consumers will react. In Boston, Partners Healthcare has come up with a plan likely to generate a great deal of interest and possibly some controversy. According to an internal memo obtained by the Boston Globe, the provider plans to sell aggregated patient data to the government, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and insurers. The plan would put Partners in competition with companies like HealthGrades and Submio who are already in the data market. Expect complaints from privacy groups likely to see the idea as an assault on patient rights.

- see this article from the Boston Globe

PLUS: The trend toward transparency isn't something that hospitals should fight, argues the Center for Health Transformation's Jim Frogue. "The publicly traded companies that embrace this trend will be fine. But those that try to fight it, that try to resist it, are going to get hurt. Article