This looks to be the week for health care quality, outcomes, and reporting posts. The latest comes to us courtesy of Fierce Healthcare and the Boston Globe in a report on cardiac surgeons’ patients’ death rates.
Within two weeks, anyone will be able to find out the mortality rates for 55 Massachusetts cardiac surgeons‘ bypass patients. And yes, the data will be case-mix adjusted.
The effort is similar to one that has been in place for some time now for hospitals’ bypass patients. Mass. also reports general hospital cost data (and has been for years); procedure-specific data on costs and even hospital-specific, DRG-level data on hospital payments.
This is not just for data geeks; payers and employers should be using these data as part of their hospital evaluation process and when considering which networks to join. As an example, a payer can use the tables to determine that payments for non-complicated back fusion range from $15,452 to $20,488. Armed with this information, claims staff can negotiate with hospitals, execs can assess their performance, provider relations staff can build networks, and actuaries can calculate rates.
What does this mean for you?
There’s lots of very useful data out there, you just need to look for it.
Oh good, the data will be adjusted to weigh each surgeon’s mix of patients and the severity of their illness.
I wonder how that will be determined? And by mix of patients, does that mean they are going to take into account the physical condition and the DNA of the patient?
I am skeptical, that can be accomplished, with any degree of accuracy.
More likely two things will occur as a result.
1) Doctors will refrain from treating patients they feel are high risk, or
2) Prospective patients will choose only the highest quality rated doctor, forcing up prices even more.
Then if insurance companies try to steer patients to lesser quality doctors to save money, or discriminate against the poor by forcing them to go to lesser rated doctors, via higher co-pays or deductibles, can you imagine the outcry or liability should an outcome be less than favorable?
Like I’ve alluded to before, you can’t put a price tag on your health. Second best just isn’t good enough.