Just in time for open enrollment, a new physician rating site

USA Today reports that the website uses about 500 million federal and private claims and patient reviews to rank doctors. Meanwhile, the failure of the $30 billion federal program to create interoperable electronic health record systems is examined by Politico.

USA Today: New Doctors Site Rates For Experience, Quality
The first comprehensive physician rating and comparison database launches Monday in time for open enrollment on federal and state health exchanges, as well as for many employer-provided plans. The new version of the website Healthgrades.com uses about 500 million claims from federal and private sources and patient reviews to rate and rank doctors based on their experience, complication rates at the hospitals where they practice and patient satisfaction (O'Donnell, 10/20).

Politico: Few Motives To Fix Busted Health Data
Someday, doctors will have our data at their fingertips and will use it to prevent drug reactions, nip diabetes and cancers in the bud and lengthen our lives while preventing unpleasant and costly hospital stays. But for most doctors, that free-flowing information highway is a beautiful dream that doesn't pay the bills (Allen, 10/20).

The role of primary care doctors in lowering health care costs is also examined -

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: More Efficient Health Care Generates Savings
The potential to lower health care costs by focusing on primary care can be seen in the example of a patient with diabetes who had been to an emergency department or hospitalized 30 times in roughly a year. The patient then developed a relationship with a primary care physician who closely monitored his health. The next year, he didn't seek care at an emergency room and wasn't hospitalized once (Boulton, 10/20).