quality measures
PA puts hospital quality data online
A Pennsylvania group has launched a new website offering quality reports that compare hospital performance and outcomes for the state. On the site, which includes data from all 162 primary acute... Read more...
Errors force BCBS of TN to postpone doctor ratings
Dogged by complaints that its data was inaccurate, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has put its planned doctor rating program on hold. During a 60-day review period BCBS gave doctors, the physicians... Read more...
Cigna hires NCQA to check its doctor rankings
Over the past few months, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been challenging the physician ranking programs state health plans use. To make peace with the... Read more...
AHRQ: Patient safety improving, but slowly
According to a new study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), patient safety improved between 2000 and 2005. However, the improvement was modest, a mere 1 percent, according to... Read more...
CMS tightening quality-reporting measures
After running its Physician Quality Reporting Initiative for a year, Medicare has begun to analyze the data, and is preparing to tweak and improve the program for this year. Physicians who... Read more...
Kennedy asks again about HHS patient-safety data delay
I'm guessing Sen. Kennedy is losing patience by this point. For the third time in just one year, Kennedy has written a letter asking why the heck HHS hasn't filed regs which would implement a 2005... Read more...
WellPoint rolling out physician reviews system
WellPoint has announced that it expects to roll out its planned physician reviews system sometime during the first quarter of this year in partnership with restaurant reviews giant Zagat. As planned,... Read more...
Transparency goes mainstream
While consumers have complained about healthcare pricing for years--and payers have struggled to come up with quality measures they could live with--transparency advocates blew the doors down this... Read more...
Minnesota Blue plan accepts provider reviews on Web site
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has taken an unusual step--it's allowing patients to post provider reviews to a new, dedicated website... Read more...
ALSO NOTED: Health data sharing groups in trouble; Pharmacists ranked highly for ethics; and much more...
> A new study suggests that regional health information organizations may face a cloudier future than expected. Read more...
