Comments on classes and Article 12.

Hello. In talking about UHC presentations I would like to mention that they were very good in revealing today problems of Health Care system both for the patients and the doctors and I liked some of the solutions offered. Especially interesting for me was Ranking system problem as it had huge effects on efficient physicians' work and patients feedback. The article below will touch upon this problem too.

Article 12. INSURERS RANK PHYSICIANS: WHO IS IT REALLY GOOD FOR?
http://docwhisperer.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/physician-rankings-who-are-they-really-good-for/
As it was very nice described in the article the goal of creating ranking systems for physicians was to provide customers with additional information on people, who treat them and the level of service. “People don’t want to go to a movie or buy a book or buy a car or go to a restaurant without some ability to assess value for dollar. ” Such ranking systems work more than in 100 insurance industry markets or regions across the country. The idea seems to be great, but lets see what is wrong with it and why doctors, who are one day in the top ratings are deleted from the network the following day. Is it possible that their level of service changes so rapidly?
The main disadvantages are:
1. Data often contain errors and that doctors often lack the ability to correct them;
2. The effort is more about cutting costs than raising quality;
3. Doctors are held accountable for whether patients exercise, take their medications or follow their prescribed regimens;
4. Disparate ratings can confuse patients and cause turbulence in group practices and much more.
In my opinion before creating such ranking the insurance company have to double check several times how the system is working because it is very easy to ruin somebody's reputation in a moment, but it takes hundreds of years to build it after!!