Heated debate surrounds Physician Compare database

Connecticut Mirror: Physicians, Patient Advocates Differ Over Quality Measurements
Physician Compare might not seem like the kind of tool that would spark a divisive policy debate. It's a website, recently launched by Medicare officials, that allows patients to find a cardiologist, a pediatrician, or other Medicare provider in their zip code. But while it's just a physician directory now, eventually it will become much more — an online database that includes quality-of-care measurements and patient reviews. And it's become the subject of a quiet but fierce tussle between consumer advocates and doctors groups, which see the potential for the wesbite in starkly different terms (Shesgreen, 3/7).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.