Doctors debate: Should government ’mystery shoppers’ spy on docs?

Florida doctors last month avoided what some saw as an unwelcome "mystery shopper" patient: the federal government. Government researchers were poised to secretly study doctors in nine states, including Florida, until public outcry scuttled the proposal. But some doctors now are saying the government made a mistake and that fear essentially derailed a study that could have provided important results about patients' access to care. "Some critics argue that such inherently deceptive study designs are unethical. But concealment is frequently used in experiments to avoid biasing results," wrote Karin Rhodes, MD, in a commentary published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. "In this case, the public, patients, and healthcare providers all benefit."