Over the past decade, public reporting on health care performancehas become increasingly common. But whereas most reporting hasconcentrated on the quality of care in health maintenance organizations,hospitals, or large medical practices, health care purchasersare now focusing on identifying which individual physiciansdeliver good care most efficiently. The appropriate way to measurephysicians' efficiency — and the proper uses for suchmeasurements — is a matter of disagreement between thosewho pay for health care and those who provide it.
Knowledge about physicians' efficiency could be helpful to patientswho increasingly struggle to afford premiums, deductibles, and. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Dr. Milstein is the chief physician at Mercer Health and Benefits and medical director of the Pacific Business Group on Health — both in San Francisco. Dr. Lee is network president for Partners Healthcare in Boston and an associate editor of the Journal.
A video interview with Dr. Thomas Lee can be viewed at www.nejm.org.
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