Can We Get More Out of Physician Performance Measures?

However, since any single plan's patients may represent a fraction of a physician's entire patient panel, the likelihood is greater that the assessment may yield incomplete--if not erroneous--results. For instance, if a plan's patients are disproportionately sicker with higher costs of care than the physician's overall patient panel, the plan's assessment might show the physician as a poor performer, when the opposite may be true.

When looking for results, the physicians themselves need to be kept in mind. Effective support should be in place for physicians willing to improve, and "robust rewards" should be available for physicians demonstrating good results, she said.

Otherwise, as data suggests, it will "be difficult if not impossible" to engage physicians in the performance measurement process. The support and rewards "have to be of value" to physicians to avoid distraction by competing demand, Draper said.

And, although the challenges are formidable, "failure to take the appropriate steps to improve the current state of physician performance measurement may result in a lost opportunity to improve the quality and efficiency of the underperforming U.S. healthcare system," she said.