Health Insurance Daily

To Find A Doctor, Mine The Data

Now that millions of consumers are surfing the Web to research their own medical symptoms, many are taking the next step: comparison-shopping online for hospitals and doctors.

As their out-of-pocket health care expenses continue to grow - through rising medical costs, higher insurance premiums and heftier co-payments - many people are using consumer skills well honed by online research on everything from digital cameras to S.U.V.'s.

And their employers and insurers, intent on getting the best value from their own health spending, are arming those consumers with increasingly detailed searchable databases.

The data comes from medical records that insurers are pressing doctors and hospitals to provide, and in some cases from patient surveys.

"We've got terrific measurements information in some areas, but in other areas we don't have good measurements at all," said Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which is working to standardize the way health care data are reported.

To read this article in its entirety, click on The New York Times.

posted by Mike @ 8:45 AM