AMCNO Spearheads Introduction of Physician Ranking Bill in the Ohio House

After several months of working with the AMCNO leadership and lobbyists, Representative Tom Patton has introduced a physician ranking bill in the Ohio House – HB 622. Co-sponsors of HB 622 are Rep. Carol Schindel and Rep. Richard Nero. The House bill is a companion bill to SB 355 – introduced over the in the Ohio Senate by Senator Bob Spada (R-24). The purpose of this legislation is to provide patients with accurate information when selecting a physician. This legislation would prevent health insurance companies from ranking physicians solely based on specific criteria to persuade a consumer to choose one physician over another. The designations would be made based on cost efficiency, quality of care or clinical experience. This legislation will establish standards for the physician designations. It stresses that health plans must use risk-adjusted data, base grades, and ratings at least in part on nationally recognized quality of care measures. The legislation also allows physicians the right to review and appeal their ratings prior to the ratings being released to the public.

The issue of physician ranking has been hotly debated for several years. The crux of the debate is balancing the rights of physicians to have accurate and relevant reporting of their practice with the desire of health insurers and consumers to have access to information about their treating physician. The AMCNO has expressed concern that doctor rankings can be confusing and could be used to steer patients to the least-expensive health care providers, rather than being based on quality. It is important that the insurance companies are truly reviewing quality issues versus cost and claims data, and the data must be accurate with the ability of physicians to appeal their data.