MN Physician Groups Rated by Consumer Reports

"Don't panic—at least not until you've discussed the results," the article says. "For one thing, Minnesota ranks first in the country in many measures of health care and is above average in most aspects of diabetes and cardiovascular disease care, so a practice that scores below average in Minnesota might still be average or better compared with practices elsewhere in the country."

Santa says that the Minnesota database contains data on physician quality of care for numerous conditions, including asthma, colorectal cancer, depression and the use of health information technology. But it decided to go with diabetes and heart disease since so many patients have those diagnoses, or conditions that place them at high risk.

Consumer Reports say that the physician scoring editions of the magazine reflect a new era for transparency and are especially relevant because they mirror all-payer data, based on actual care, rather than Medicare data, which is based on claims.