AMA Supports Coalition's Call For Transparency And Accurate Reporting Among Health Insurers

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 02 Apr 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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"The American Medical Association applauds efforts by the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project to raise the bar on the reliability and validity of information that health insurers provide to patients.

"The Patient Charter drafted by the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project requires health insurers to be more transparent and balanced when providing information to patients. These crucial principles offer hope that patients will be able to trust the information to make informed health care choices. Safeguards must ensure that physician rating information does not result in reduced access to care or disrupt patients' longstanding relationships with their physicians.

"Efforts by health insurers to rate physicians must not be driven solely by costs and economics. The primary goal of these programs must be to promote quality care using meaningful measures. The AMA has long been involved in these efforts through the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement and National Quality Forum.

"Instead of tiered and narrow networks, the AMA believes that providing valid data to physicians and patients will better improve the quality and efficiency of care.

"The work of the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project reinforces the need to protect access to care and the patient-physician relationship by requiring insurers to open their physician rating programs for careful evaluation to assess accuracy, integrity and fairness.

"Although additional work must be done to accurately and fairly evaluate the individual work of physicians, the AMA sees the Patient Charter as an important step in the right direction and we offer our assistance in ensuring its criteria are appropriate and measurable."

American Medical Association